Pakistan denies mistreating US diplomats

Spokesperson Muhammad Faisal says Islamabad has approached the World Bank to resolve water disputes with New Delhi

ISLAMABAD : The Foreign Office (FO) on Friday rejected recent allegations by the United States that its diplomats posted in Pakistan were treated badly.

“Diplomats hailing from all countries enjoy diplomatic privileges alike and are provided every possible support as per international laws and norms as well as reciprocity,” Foreign Office spokesperson Dr Muhammad Fasial told reporters here at the weekly news briefing.

He was responding to a question regarding the recent statement by the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who accused Pakistan of mistreating the American diplomats.

“My officers, our state department officers are being treated badly as well, folks working in the embassies and councils [and] in other places are not being treated well by the Pakistani government either,” Pompeo told the Congress on Thursday.



But, the FO claimed Pakistan had never received any such complaint from the US.

“The Foreign Office has not received any specific complaints from the US side after establishment of the mechanism to resolve the issue, on treatment of the US diplomats in Pakistan,” Faisal said.

Pakistan and the US recently imposed tit-for-tat restrictions on each other’s diplomats, suggesting a new low in the relationship between the two countries.

The secretary of state also informed the Congress Washington released “far fewer funds” to Pakistan in 2018 and may give even less for next year.

The spokesperson confirmed that the US had suspended the security related assistance to Pakistan earlier this year, including the Coalition Support Funds (CSF) reimbursements.



However, Faisal said security assistance served the mutual interests of both Pakistan and the US.

“We believe, and the fact has been frequently acknowledged by the US officials also, that the security related assistance served the mutual interest of stability in the region,” he said.

The spokesperson further said Pakistan’s counter-terrorism operations in Federally Administered tribal Areas (Fata) and clearing of the territory from all sorts of terrorist networks was a testimony that the US assistance for capacity building of Pakistan’s law enforcement and security agencies has helped in achieving the shared objective of stability and peace in the region.

“The US assistance on the civilian economic side continues with both sides engaged in undertaking collaborative projects and programs.”

Pakistan rules out Indian spy handover

Faisal emphatically ruled out the possibility of release of Indian Naval officer turned RAW agent Kulbhushan Jhadav, who was convicted and given death sentence for espionage and involvement in terrorist activities in the country.

He was reacting to the claim by former ISI chief Lt. Gen (retd) Asad Durrani, in the book Spy Chronicles, claimed that Pakistan did not tackle the case of Jhadav properly and that he would be handed over to India.

“This will never happen,” Faisal stated.

SCO counter-terror conference

Meanwhile, the Legal Experts Group Meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization-Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (SCO-RATS) concluded here with member states agreeing to fight terrorism and extremism.

This was the first ever SCO meeting that was held in Pakistan since becoming member of SCO in June 2017. Legal Experts from eight member states, namely China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, India, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Pakistan, as well as representatives of the SCO-RATS Executive Committee participated in the meeting.

The SCO-RATS, based in Tashkent, was established by the member states of the SCO in 2001 to combat terrorism, separatism and extremism.