Saudi Arabia has asked Pakistan for military aircraft, warships and soldiers, Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said today, at the start of a parliamentary debate on whether Pakistan should get involved in a Saudi-led campaign in Yemen.
Saudi Arabia, the Gulf's main Sunni Muslim power, has asked Sunni-majority Pakistan to join a Saudi-led military coalition that began conducting air strikes last month against largely Shi'ite Houthi forces in Yemen.
Sharif has hedged his bets. He has repeatedly said he will defend any threat to Saudi Arabia's "territorial integrity" without defining what threat, or what action.
Arif Rafiq, a Washington-based adjunct scholar with the Middle East Institute, said earlier Pakistan was hoping to satisfy Saudi expectations at a "minimal" level.
Sharif owes the Saudis. Endemic tax dodging means Pakistan needs regular injections of foreign cash to avoid economic meltdown. Last year, the Saudis gave Pakistan $1.5 billion. Saudi Arabia also sheltered Sharif after he was overthrown in a 1999 military coup.
Pakistani intervention would probably also anger Shi'ite power Iran, which shares a long and porous border in a region roiling with its own separatist insurgency.
In the debate on Monday, Aitzaz Ahsan, Senate leader of opposition, demanded Sharif clarify his comments.
The session also saw stormy scenes as a major opposition party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, ended a seven-month long boycott of parliament.
NOT SAUDI'S HANDMAIDEN
Pakistan has a long record of contributing troops to UN peacekeeping missions but public opinion seems largely against intervention in any Saudi-led action in Yemen.
"Pakistan is not Saudi Arabia's handmaiden, doing its bidding at the flick of a wrist," the Express Tribune said in an editorial.
Many analysts say the military, which has ruled Pakistan for more than half its existence since independence, has the final call. The generals have been silent.
Pakistan has nearly 1.5 million active soldiers and reserves, but about a third of those are tied up with operations along the Afghan border.
Even though Saudi Arabia is a "special friend" of both the government and the military, Pakistani intervention in Yemen might be unwise, said retired Major General Mahmud Ali Durrani, a former national security adviser.
"If it was to defend Saudi Arabia against aggression, in spite of our commitments, I think we would stretch to sending troops," he said. "To send our troops to a third country - I think that would be foolhardy.
"Either way, it is an absolutely terrible choice to be made for Pakistan."
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