Eleven years after Pakistan’s parliament voted to keep the country out of a Saudi-led intervention in Yemen in 2015, Islamabad has agreed to rapidly deploy more forces to Saudi Arabia without a parliamentary vote, highlighting the military’s grip on foreign policy under Field Marshal Asim Munir.
On Monday, a defence pact Pakistan signed with Saudi Arabia and Turkey in August was invoked for the first time, as the kingdom faces escalating attacks from Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis.
Constitutional changes last year had put Munir in command of all three services until 2030, with lifetime rank as field marshal and immunity from criminal prosecution.
Analysts say the deployment signals the growing power of the military at home, where jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s party is marching on Islamabad, accusing the army of dominating politics – an accusation the army denies.
“There were times in the past when Pakistan’s parliament would vote not to send troops, and the military would abide by that decision. But it’s a different era now,” said Michael Kugelman, a resident senior fellow for South Asia at the Atlantic Council.
Pakistan’s information ministry said the alliance “has gone through all necessary government procedures” but did not say whether the cabinet or parliament was involved, calling details of the deployment “a matter of operational confidentiality.”
It’s not clear if Pakistani troops will take part in operations against the Houthis, who are backed by Iran. Pakistan is actively engaged with Tehran in its role as a mediator in the US-led war on Iran, but if Islamabad gets involved in directly fighting the Houthis, that could rupture relations.
The Houthis declared a ban on Saudi shipping in July and have since struck tankers and oil facilities. Last week, the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said the militant group had hit a power station in Medina that supplies electricity to the Prophet’s Mosque – a claim the Houthis denied.
After an emergency meeting in Riyadh that Munir attended with Saudi and Turkish counterparts, the three countries condemned attempted attacks on Mecca and Medina and said they would “provide the agreed military forces and capabilities and ensure their rapid deployment” in line with each country’s “national legislation”.
They gave no troop numbers, missions, command arrangements, costs or duration.
In 2015, when Saudi Arabia asked for Pakistani troops, warplanes and ships for its Yemen campaign, the then-Pakistan government put the request to parliament, which unanimously resolved to stay neutral while pledging to defend the kingdom’s territory and holy sites.