FO rejects outright ‘baseless’ suggestion it asked UAE to expel Arshad Sharif

By Muhammad JuniadPublished On 02 Jan 2023

The foreign office rejected outright suggestions that Islamabad wrote to Abu Dhabi, asking the latter to expel slain journalist Arshad Sharif from the Gulf country, forcing him to travel to the African state of Kenya where he was ultimately killed late last week.

During his weekly briefing, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Asim Iftikhar responded to questions that Islamabad had a role in forcing the journalist to travel to Africa.

“This is absolutely baseless; there is no truth in it whatsoever. And even this matter does not relate to the foreign ministry,” said

Iftikhar categorically denied the presence of a letter, to his knowledge, which the Pakistani government had sent to the government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) asking it to expel Sharif.

He said that foreign office have seen such reports, spreading disinformation on social media as well, while some people had gone as far as to suggest that there was a letter, and it was allegedly signed by Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

He further said that this is a very serious matter, which is why it requires detailed investigations.

“There cannot be anything out of the box. This is not that kind of situation.”

Iftikhar added that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has already spoken with the Kenyan president about the tragedy and the Kenyan President had very kindly agreed to this request.

Subsequently, a two-member team, whose mandate is to ascertain facts related to the murder, is on its way to Kenya.

“We have been in touch with the Kenyan authorities at various levels here in Islamabad and in Nairobi to facilitate this visit, and we look forward to full cooperation and coordination to facilitate the work of this team,” he said.

Moreover, the foreign office spokesperson categorically rejected India’s baseless propaganda directed against Pakistan at the meeting of United Nations Counter-terrorism Committee (CTC), hosted in Mumbai.

“It is regrettable that India chose to misuse an important committee of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to mislead the international community about Pakistan’s role in countering global terrorism.

India’s shenanigans undermine the purposes and mandate of the committee and are reprehensible,“ the Foreign Office said in a statement.

He said that the Indian government should be held accountable for attempting to unjustifiably prolong the legal proceedings of the Mumbai case by employing a range of dilatory tactics.

“India’s malfeasance intervention in today’s CTC meeting in Mumbai yet again corroborates Pakistan’s long-standing concerns that India is only interested in politicizing international counterterrorism forums to malign Pakistan,” he said.