The American demands for Pakistan to do more and more created a honeymoon period of sorts for the civil-military relationship; whereby both sides were united in the face of what they saw as Washington’s unfairness. That chapter may now be closed. For while our lawmakers have seemingly turned on each other and denounced US moves to have this country put on the FATF watch list as evidence of government failure — the men in khaki have snuck out from behind the wings and announced as a done deal the deployment of Pakistani troops to Saudi Arabia; in addition to the 1,000 or so already stationed there. Thus Senator Farhatullah Babar was right to slam this as “tantamount to bypassing the Parliament”. For such unilateral manoeuvrings do not bode well for the country’s long-term democratic health. That this has happened so close to elections sends a reminder of just who calls the shots. The military establishment issued a press release earlier this week informing of the deployment. It said that the contingent will adopt a training and advisory role under the umbrella of Pak-Saudi bilateral security cooperation and that no soldiers will be deployed outside of the Kingdom. Though it was less forth coming about the number involved. Parliament therefore has legitimate grounds to demand answers. For the fear has long been that Riyadh wants to draw this country into its regional conflicts such as the all-out military aggression directed at Yemen, one of the world’s poorest nations. As well as its ongoing proxy war with Iran. Despite our lawmakers voting for the principled stand of neutrality on both these fronts. This may or may not be the price of the double-edged sword of nuclear capability: everyone wants a piece of the atomic pie; or at least the threat of it. Back home, we suffer from a non-transparency epidemic. For while much has been made of how the Turkish and Iranian governments were taken into quiet confidence — the citizenry is always the last to know. In this case, Parliament too. Thus we want to be apprised of the terms and conditions of the ‘deal’. Will the Saudis, for example, let our troops get their hands on advanced US weaponry to try the latter out for size? Or will Riyadh be the one to explain to a belligerent Washington that at a time when it has suspended all military assistance to this country on the grounds of our unwillingness to go after militant safe-havens — we have chosen to help out another nation? We would also like someone to tell us if our boys will somehow be involved in the Islamic Military Alliance that many believe has Tehran in its sights? And, lastly, someone somewhere has to come clean on what the future holds. Is Pakistan turning into a Saudi satellite Republic? The Senate Chairman was right to summon the Defence minister to appear before the House on Monday. Though, as we all know, it should not have come to this. The national interest has to extend beyond that of the military. If, that is, Pakistan is to continue with the charade of calling itself a democracy. * Published in Daily Times, February 17th 2018.