The Foreign Office has arranged an in-camera briefing for parliamentarians Tuesday [today] with a view to taking them into confidence over the high-level contacts between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia in the aftermath of Riyadh-Tehran diplomatic row. According to a National Assembly notice, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz would give an in-camera briefing to its Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs regarding the recent conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and Pakistan's position on the issue at the Foreign Office.

Meanwhile, talking to reporters on the sidelines of third China-Afghanistan-Pakistan Trilateral Dialogue on Afghanistan, Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed, who is also chairman of Senate's Standing Committee of Defence, said the government has decided to take parliamentarians into confidence over high-level contacts they had held recently with Saudi authorities.

He said that a joint meeting of the Senate and the National Assembly standing committees on Foreign Affairs has been called on Tuesday and the Prime Minister's Adviser on Foreign Affairs would take the joint committees into confidence over all negotiations held with Saudi Foreign Minister and defence minister during their visits to the country. Mushahid believed that Pakistan would not send its troops to fight in the Saudi-led 34-nation anti-terror Islamic Military alliance and that Pakistan's cooperation would be confined to counter-terrorism only.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2016