The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has decided to approach the National Assembly to stop the federal government from including Pakistan in the Saudi Arabia-led 41-nation Islamic military alliance with General (retired) Raheel Sharif as its head.
Senior PTI leaders have confirmed that the party will submit a resolution in the National Assembly Secretariat within two days in this regard.
"Resolution will be submitted within the next two days in the NA Secretariat. PTI is currently finalising its draft," The Express Tribune quoted PTI Member of National Assembly(MNA) Dr Shireen Mazari, as saying.
PTI chairman Imran Khan had last week constituted a committee of four MNAs Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Shafqat Mehmood, Asad Umar and Dr Shireen Mazari to look into available parliamentary tools to take up the matter.
PTI MNA Asad Umar said that decision has been taken after consultations between the committee members.
Asserting that the pros and cons of the move should be discussed in detail, Umar said political parties must be taken into confidence before giving any formal commitment to Saudi-led 41-nation Islamic military alliance.
The PTI spokesman Fawwad Chaudhry had earlier said the decision to issue the NOC to General (Retd.) Sharif is contrary to the decision made by all parliamentary parties to remain neutral in the Middle East crisis.
"Even if the government had decided to issue the NOC to the former army chief, it should have come again to the parliament to give reasons why it wanted to do so," he said.
Chaudhry said the appointment of General (Retd.) Sharif would send a negative message that the Pakistan was against Iran as the 39-nation military alliance of Muslim states was apparently being formed against Tehran.
He further said that the decision would intensify sense of insecurity prevailing amongst the Shia communities in Pakistan as they are already been targeted in the country.
Taking note of a string of recent statements about General (Retd.) Raheel Sharif, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has restricted the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders from passing any more controversial remarks about the former army chief.
"PM Nawaz Sharif takes notice of the statements against Gen (retd) Raheel Sharif," Radio Pakistan tweeted on Sunday evening,
"Nawaz Sharif prohibits PML-N leaders from giving any controversial statements about General (retd) Raheel Sharif," read another tweet.
"The entire nation pays tribute to Gen (retired) Raheel Sharif for his meritorious services," a third tweet by Radio Pakistan quoted the prime minister as saying.
Prime Minister Sharif's directions to the leaders of his party came days after Sindh Governor Muhammad Zubair called Raheel Sharif 'just another general' and said he should not be made larger than life.
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