Saturday, Jan 07, 2017

Islamabad: Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif has confirmed that former Pakistani army chief General (retd) Raheel Sharif has been made the chief of the Saudi-led 39-nation Islamic military coalition formed to combat terrorism.

Speaking during a local television channel talk show late Friday, the minister said that an agreement in this regard was finalized few days back. He however pointed out he did not have much information at the moment about the details of the agreement.

The headquarters of the Saudi-led coalition will be based in Riyadh.

The minister said that the decision to appoint Gen Raheel, who retired in November 2016, was taken after taking the incumbent government into confidence.

“Definitely our government’s consent must have been part of this,” he replied when asked if the decision was taken in Riyadh or Islamabad.

The minister said that any such assignment or posting requires proper clearance from the government and General Headquarters (GHQ) both and confirmed that the due process was followed before finalizing the agreement. He was, however, unaware of the exact details.

“This thing was in the pipeline for quite some time and the prime minister was also part of the deliberations,” Asif said.

By Mohsin Ali Correspondent

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