Saudi Arabia has a habit of putting the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a difficult situation.

This happened for the second time in 2015 when Saudi Arabia in mid-December made Pakistan part of the new, 34-country Islamic military alliance to combat terrorism. The Saudi announcement was surprising and the Pakistani reaction was confusing.

Earlier in March, Pakistan’s name was mentioned along with Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Sudan by the Saudi government as its allies, ready to take part in the military coalition to launch ground offensive against the Shia Houthis in Yemen. A Saudi military spokesman said at the time that these countries had expressed desire to participate in the operation against the rebels who had captured most of Yemen, including the capital, Sana’a. Pakistan’s flag, along with those of the other countries, was prominently displayed in the media room where the Saudi spokesman talked to the journalists.

Pakistan managed to wriggle out of the first Saudi initiative by declining to commit troops to the ground offensive in Yemen. Even if Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif wanted to oblige his Saudi benefactors, there was no way he could have done so in the face of strong opposition in the parliament and vocal criticism of any such move by the civil society and most of the media. The military didn’t react publicly, but it would have been wary of taking part in a battle with sectarian overtones in Yemen.

Though Pakistan’s refusal to join the military alliance annoyed the Gulf sheikhdoms and caused a rupture in its traditionally close relations with Saudi Arabia, the parliament’s resolution against sending troops to Yemen came to the government’s rescue and enabled it to deflect the pressure from Riyadh. Pakistan also avoided getting involved in the Saudi-Iranian tussle and saving itself from the fallout of the growing sectarian strife in the Gulf region.

Rebuffing the Saudis was obviously difficult for Nawaz Sharif, who is known to have close personal relations with the Saudi royal family and had benefited from its hospitality while living in self-exile for seven years during the rule of his nemesis, military ruler General Pervez Musharraf. His critics even claimed that he may have given a commitment to the Saudi rulers to commit Pakistani troops in case of need for military operations.

However, there is no evidence that such a commitment was made because no civilian ruler will take this major decision involving the military without first taking consent from the country’s powerful army command.

Once Islamabad decided not to take part in the military campaign in Yemen, the prime minister made a renewed effort to reassure the Saudi monarchy of Pakistan’s continued support by warning that any threat to Saudi Arabia’s territorial integrity would evoke a strong response from Pakistan.

In the second instance, though, there wasn’t enough space for Pakistan to manoeuvre its way out of joining the 34-nation Islamic military coalition that came into being due to prodding by the US. The reasons were obvious. First, it was directed against terrorism and not any specific country or one group of rebels like the Houthis. Two, as many as 34 countries were supposed to join the alliance instead of only five -- Pakistan, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan and Morocco -- that were asked to commit troops to the military offensive in Yemen in the previous case. Third, one of the five conflict-hit countries where the coalition was required to coordinate and support military operations was Afghanistan, a neighbour of Pakistan impacting its security and well-being like no other neighbouring country. The other four countries where the military alliance would coordinate anti-terrorism operations are Iraq, Syria, Libya and Egypt.

Though Pakistan has now joined the anti-terrorism military coalition, selling the idea to the people and justifying it even as an afterthought isn’t going to be easy. Already, the government has come under fire in the Senate and also in the media for failing to take the elected representatives and the public into confidence about such an important issue.

Opposition politicians are reminding the government that Pakistan didn’t gain anything from joining military alliances such as the US-led SEATO and CENTO and it was time it stopped becoming member of any new such alliance. The fact that Iran, Iraq and Syria haven’t been invited to join the alliance despite being engaged in fighting the terrorist group, Islamic State, was also highlighted and the government advised to stay away from the exclusively Sunni coalition.

If one were to analyse the initial reaction of Pakistan’s foreign ministry and the comment reportedly made by Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry, Pakistan was caught off-guard about the announcement as it wasn’t properly consulted about the alliance. The foreign secretary was quoted by sections of the media as saying that he was surprised by the news and had asked Pakistan’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia to seek clarification about it from the Saudi authorities.

There was also an unsubstantiated news item that prime minister wasn’t happy with the foreign secretary’s reaction to the Saudi announcement. The subsequent statement by the foreign ministry announcing Pakistan’s willingness to join the military alliance against terrorism was kind of damage-control exercise. The foreign ministry spokesman also said additional information was being sought from Saudi Arabia to decide the extent of Pakistan’s participation in various activities of the coalition. This showed that Pakistan was still in the dark about certain crucial functions of the alliance.

However, the Prime Minister’s Advisor on Foreign Affairs, Sartaj Aziz tried to show that the foreign ministry was in the loop by claiming that it knew a little bit about the formation of the Saudi-led military alliance as it had been discussed for two months. He insisted that Pakistan’s role in the alliance would be in line with its six-point foreign policy direction framed by the PML-N government in 2013. It included policy of non-interference, peaceful coexistence with neighbouring countries, focusing on trade and investment instead of aid, economic revival and giving attention to the needs of overseas Pakistanis.

Pakistan’s stated policy is that it would not deploy its troops outside its borders except for UN peacekeeping missions. In the recent past, Pakistan cited the same pretext to twice reject the US calls to join the military alliance against the IS.

In the case of Saudi Arabia though, Pakistan has already been cooperating with it in counter-terrorism. Pakistani troops were also deployed in Saudi Arabia in limited numbers as part of their defence cooperation. The 34-country military alliance is unlikely to become a robust coalition focused on fighting militant groups such as IS, al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, etc due to the divergent stand and needs of its member countries. Every country will have to fight its own war against terrorism while hoping that the richer and bigger countries would assist it with financial and technical resources. Malaysia’s defence minister Hishamuddin Hussein was right when he said that there would be no military commitment but more of an understanding that the members of the alliance were together in the combat against terrorism.