Saudi-led military alliance not country or sect specific: Raheel Sharif

Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani held a meeting with the Commander-in-Chief of Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition (IMCTC), General (R) Raheel Sharif, in Riyadh on Wednesday. (Photo credit: PID)

Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani presents a souvenir to General (R) Raheel Sharif after their meeting at the IMCTC headquarters in Riyadh on Wednesday. (Photo credit: PID)

• Pakistan’s former army chief who heads alliance briefs Senate chairman in Riyadh
• Says primary objective of the coalition is to weed out terrorism

ISLAMABAD: Former Pakistani army chief General Raheel Sharif said on Wednesday a 41-nation Saudi-led military coalition that he heads was not established to counter any specific country or sect.
According to a statement issued by the Senate Secretariat, Sharif said the primary objective of the Saudi-led military alliance, officially known as the Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition (IMCTC), was to counter and eliminate terrorism.
Pakistani Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani is currently in Saudi Arabia on an official visit.
"The Islamic military coalition was not formed to take action against any country, nation or sect," Sharif said in a briefing to the Senate chairman at the IMCTC headquarters in Riyadh, referring to accusations that the alliance was formed as an anti-Shia bloc. 
The IMCTC was formed in December 2015 as a result of an initiative taken by Saudi Arabia. Pakistan’s former top military chief was appointed to lead the coalition as its first commander-in-chief in January 2017. General Sharif retired  in 2016, the first Pakistani army chief in more than 20 years not to seek an extension to his term.