Pakistan sends troops to Saudi without parliament vote — SkimNews
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- Pakistan agreed to rapidly deploy additional forces to Saudi Arabia without a parliamentary vote, marking the first invocation of the August defense pact signed with Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
- Field Marshal Asim Munir was placed in command of all three military services until 2030 with lifetime rank and criminal immunity under constitutional changes passed last year by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's government.
- In 2015, Pakistan's parliament unanimously voted to stay neutral in Saudi Arabia's Yemen campaign—contrasting with the current deployment that bypassed legislative approval entirely.
- Pakistan's information ministry said the deployment "went through all necessary government procedures" but declined to confirm whether the cabinet or parliament was involved, citing "operational confidentiality."
- The Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, whose text has not been released, builds on a 2025 Saudi-Pakistani pact under which Pakistan had sent about 8,000 troops to the kingdom by May, Reuters reported.
- Michael Kugelman of the Atlantic Council said there were times when parliament would vote against troop deployments and the military would comply, "but it's a different era now."
Why it matters: The deployment shows Pakistan's military under Munir has consolidated control over foreign policy: foreign partners now treat the army as indispensable, reinforcing its domestic political grip. The 2015 parliamentary check that kept troops out of Yemen no longer applies—neither the ruling PML-N nor the PPP would comment on whether they back the deployment.
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