ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday said it would welcome facilitation by the United States to break stalemate with India on the longstanding Kashmir dispute.
“Regarding the Pakistan–India relations and the facilitation by third parties, including the United States, Pakistan has always said that we would welcome the international community to play their role in promoting peace in the region including in facilitating dialogue and resolution of the core dispute between Pakistan and India i.e. the Jammu and Kashmir dispute,” Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch told reporters at weekly briefing in Islamabad.
She was responding to a question about the recent statement made by Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US Masood Khan, who spoke about the possible role by the US on the resolution of Kashmir dispute.
Washington in the past did play a role to ease tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. The 2003 ceasefire understanding was brokered by the then Bush administration in order to allow Musharraf regime to focus on the war on terror.
Of late, however, the US follows a more cautious approach and avoids getting involved directly in the Pakistan-India tensions.
To a question about the possible visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in April 2021, the spokesperson said the Foreign Office would not comment on speculative reports.
Meanwhile, at the invitation of president of the World Economic Forum (WEF), Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will attend the Forum’s annual meeting from January 16-20, 2023 in Davos, Switzerland. The foreign minister will be accompanied by Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar.
The foreign minister and the minister of state will participate in a number of WEF events on contemporary global and regional issues. The World Economic Forum annually brings together political and business leaders to identify pathways to overcome economic, social, and environmental challenges. This year’s Forum is being organised under the theme, “Cooperation in a Fragmented World”.
FM Bilawal will share Pakistan’s perspective on economic and social impact of the evolving geopolitical realities, and challenges for the region’s security and stability. He will highlight the developing world’s perspective on issues of climate change, food and energy security, and social vulnerabilities in times of high inflation, and slowing economic activity.
The foreign minister and the minister of state will also meet participating dignitaries including political leaders, corporate executives, heads of international organisations, and leading media and civil society personalities.
Indian woman’s mistreatment allegation at Pak HC in Delhi being ‘probed’
The Foreign Office Friday said it was “looking into” the allegation of indecent questioning by a member of its staff with an Indian woman at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi, adding that it “has zero tolerance for misbehaviour and mistreatment”.
In a statement on Friday, Spokesperson for Foreign Office Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said: “We attach high importance to proper etiquette and behavior towards all visa and consular applicants.
“All our diplomatic staff is under strict instructions to conduct themselves professionally.”
However, the FO spokesperson expressed surprise over the timing of the alleged incident and “the manner in which it has been raised”.
“There are robust mechanisms in place for the redressal of all public grievances,” she added.
It is to be noted that India Today, a Punjab University professor and department head alleged that she was asked uncomfortable questions by a staffer at the high commission when she went to apply for a visa.
“He asked me why I wasn’t married. How I live without marriage, what do I do for my sexual desires,” the woman claimed, adding that the official persistently kept asking his questions despite her attempt to change the topic.
The professor was planning a visit to Lahore to deliver a lecture at a university and to photograph monuments. She wrote to the Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, asking the matter to be taken up.
Bilateral ties between the two nations have been strained to say the least. Last week, the FO asked India to stop levelling bogus charges and end its support for terrorism in Pakistan.
“For the last several years, India has engaged in a malicious campaign to mislead the international community through a fictitious narrative of victimhood and vile anti-Pakistan propaganda. This practice must stop,” Spokesperson Baloch had said in a statement.
She was responding to a new tirade unleashed against Pakistan by Indian Foreign Minister Jaishankar during his visit to Vienna.
Jaishankar, at a press conference with his Austrian counterpart Alexander Schallenberg, said: “Since the epicentre is located so close to India, naturally our experiences and insights are useful to others.”
Later in his media interviews, he defended calling Pakistan the “epicentre of terrorism” and said he could have used tougher words. “I could use much harsher words than epicentre. Considering what has been happening to us, the epicentre is a very diplomatic world as this is a country which attacked our parliament some years ago,” the Indian external affairs minister had said.
It was not the first time that Jaishankar hurled such an accusation against Pakistan. He had in a press interaction after a meeting of the UN Security Council in December described Pakistan as the “epicentre of terrorism”, prompting Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari to remind him that “butcher of Gujarat” was the Indian prime minister.
