ISLAMABAD: Former Army chief of Pakistan General (retired) Raheel Sharif had been made the chief of 39-nation Islamicmilitary coalition to combat terrorism, defence minister Khawaja Asif confirmed to local media on Friday.
Asif admitted that an agreement in this regard was finalised few days back; however, the defence minister said he didn’t have much information at the moment about the details of the said agreement.
Khawaja Asif said that the decision was taken after taking the current government into confidence and “it was finalised here first”.
Pakistan initially found itself in the crosshairs of Middle Eastern politics as Saudi Arabia named it as part of its newly formed military alliance of Muslim countries meant to combat terrorism, without first getting its consent.
However, after initial ambiguity, the government had confirmed its participation in the alliance, but had said that the scope of its participation would be defined after Riyadh shared the details of the coalition it was assembling.
Raheel Sharif was immensely popular among ordinary Pakistanis and turned himself into a cult hero by restoring relative peace in the country.
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