ISLAMABAD: Advisor to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, Sartaj Aziz has stated that former Army Chief General Raheel Sharif had not received any job offer from Saudi Arabia.

In a statement in the Senate, Sartaj Aziz said, “There will no effect on Pakistan’s foreign policy as General Raheel was not given any job offer by Saudi Arabia.” He was commenting on the reports about Gen. Raheel’s careers in the Saudi-led military alliance to fight the terrorism.

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif also commented on the matter, saying that General Raheel had not applied for NOC yet. “He (Raheel) needs NOC from Defence Ministry if he has any offer abroad.”

In response to Chairman Senate Raza Rabbani’s request to clarify the matter, Khawaja Asif said, “Gen. Raheel had just informed about performing Umrah. He has returned to Pakistan now.”

The defence minister went on to say, if the former army chief applies for NOC, it will be decided according to the law.

Last week during a talk show at Geo TV, Khawaja Muhammad Asif had said that General (retd) Raheel Sharif had been made the chief of 39-nation Islamic military coalition formed to combat terrorism.

Asif had admitted that an agreement in this regard was finalised few days back; however, the defence minister said he didn’t have much information at the moment about the details of the said agreement.

He had said that the decision was taken after taking the incumbent government into confidence and “it was finalised here first”. The headquarters of the new Saudi-led coalition would be based in Riyadh.

The defence minister said that any such assignment or posting requires proper clearance from the government and General Headquarters (GHQ) both and confirmed that the due process was followed before finalising the agreement.

He was, however, unaware of the exact details. “As you are aware that this thing was in the pipeline for quite some time and the prime minister was also part of the deliberations,” Asif said.