After Prime Minister Imran Khan said that a Pakistani envoy posted in a foreign country wrote the memo that he flashed on March 27 during a rally and termed it “threatening”, former high commissioner to India Abdul Basit said that state officials issuing such threats to diplomats is completely unheard of.
“Incidents where state officials tell diplomats that they would sever ties if a country’s government is not sent packing has never been heard before,” he said while speaking during a TV talk show.
Basit, who was also the former ambassador of Pakistan to Germany, said that “sensitive issues of foreign policies should not be discussed in public.”
He said that the memo the prime minister has been referring to most probably carries the minutes of the meeting between US officials and a Pakistani diplomat, adding that along with the minutes, the letter might also include the assessment of the diplomat regarding the future.
“The briefing provided by the prime minister to journalists does not make it clear whether the mention of the no-confidence motion in the letter was the Pakistani diplomat’s personal assessment or whether it was said by the officials of the foreign country in question,” he said.
Basit said that if foreign state officials have said such a thing, then he would be “very, very surprised,” because this is unprecedented in state-to-state relations.
Regarding the supposed linkage of the “written threat” with Pakistan’s stance on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the former diplomat said that foreign policies take a lot of time and do not change overnight.
“There are other countries that had abstained at the UNGA and Pakistan was not the only one,” he said. “Pakistan’s relationship with Russia has not significantly deepened which could worry the United States.”
“In my view, the nub of the problem is to properly deal with diplomatic relations and foreign policy issues,” he said.
