Saudi Alliance: lack of response by government irks Senate chairman

Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz will brief Senate on Wednesday (today) about the government's decision to allow former Army Chief General Raheel Sharif (Retd.) to serve Saudi Arabia-led 41-nation Islamic Military Alliance.
The Senate Chairman informed the House that Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz will brief the House today (Wednesday) about Saudi-led military alliance. "I'd summoned both secretaries of defence and foreign affairs to brief the House but I've just been informed that the Adviser (Sartaj) himself will brief the House," he said.
At the outset, Rabbani expressed anger over lack of a response from the government regarding the Saudi Arabia-led 41-nation military alliance headed by former Army Chief General Raheel Sharif (Retd). "Why don't we just shut down the Parliament," asked visibly perturbed Rabbani after his attempts to draw attention towards the issue did not elicit any response.
Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif and Sartaj Aziz have been summoned to the Senate on Wednesday, on the issue for which the secretaries of the defence and foreign ministries have been issued notices, he said. "Both ministries are playing with the Parliament as if it were a ping-pong ball," Rabbani said, noting that the Defence Ministry had deflected his questions. He said that it had passed the matter on to the Foreign Office.
"Is it impossible for information regarding Saudi Arabia to reach the Parliament" he asked. "Does the Parliament have no worth," Rabbani exclaimed as he lost his temper. "We cannot take this issue lightly," he alerted. Senator Farhatullah Babar of Pakistan People's Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) agreed that the answers provided by the government are murky. "We have persistently been trying to get some information regarding the matter," he said, adding that according to the media outlets, the government stated that the Islamic Military Alliance would be used to combat terrorist elements such as ISIS and al-Qaeda.
"We also heard that the military alliance will assist member states in combating rebel forces which pose a threat to the country's sovereignty as per their requests," Babar said. The PPP's Senator asked the government to provide answers to lawmakers' questions.