Pakistani General Sharif shrouded in mystery, confusion: Analyst

‘The mysterious manner by which Pakistan’s former military chief Raheel Sharif has been made commander of a Saudi-led alliance remains a matter of controversy in the country, a political expert says.
Bruce Riedel, an American expert on US security, South Asia, and counter-terrorism, wrote in an article published on dailybeast.com on Wednesday that uncertainty about Sharif involved controversy inside Pakistan about whether the former army chief should take the command of the Riyadh-based military coalition at all.
Since the Saudi-led alliance excludes several Islamic countries, Pakistan’s moderate Sunni Muslims and large Shia community are opposed to joining a sectarian alliance that risks polarizing the Islamic world, argues Riedel, who is a senior fellow in the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution.
“For months this year, mystery and confusion shrouded General Raheel Sharif, Pakistan’s retired army chief. Would he or would he not be the supreme commander” of the Saudi-led alliance created by Riyadh in 2015, the author stated.’
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