Dr Asad Majeed appointed envoy to EU

Diplomat leaves for Brussels; his predecessor named high commissioner to Canada

ISLAMABAD:

Former ambassador to the US Dr Asad Majeed Khan -- one of the central characters in the PTI’s “foreign conspiracy” claim -- has left for Brussels to take over as Pakistan's new ambassador to the European Union.

He will assume his new responsibilities on May 10.

Pakistan's Ambassador to Brussels Zaheer Aslam Janjua has been appointed as the high commissioner to Canada. Janjua will arrive in Canada on May 15.

Former prime minister Imran Khan has been alleging that he was ousted from power through a US-backed conspiracy.

The coalition government led by PM Shehbaz has decided to form an “independent commission” to look into the allegations but Imran has rejected the proposal and sought formation of a judicial commission on the matter.

The controversy revolves around a diplomatic cable the then Pakistani ambassador in Washington sent to the Foreign Office on March 7.

The cable was based on Dr Majeed’s conversation with US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Donald Lu. In that cable, according to Imran, the US official threatened Pakistan of dire consequences if the vote of no-confidence against the PTI leader did not succeed.

The former prime minister claimed that he was ousted from power because he had pursued an independent foreign policy and undertook a visit to Russia despite the US opposition.

The National Security Committee (NSC), the country’s highest forum on such matters, met twice—first on March 31 when Imran was still the prime minister and then on April 22 when Shehbaz was the country’s chief executive.

In both the meetings, the NSC agreed that the language used by the American official was undiplomatic and tantamount to “blatant interference” but found no evidence to suggest that there was a conspiracy against Imran.

The PTI chairman, nevertheless, has kept building this narrative that the NSC had endorsed his claims.

The controversy has complicated the already fraught relationship between Pakistan and the US.

The new government, however, has been trying to bring some semblance of certainty with statements underlining the importance of relationship with the West, particularly the US.

The US officials have also issued statements in favour of engagement with Pakistan.

Despite the fact that the US pulled out of Afghanistan, Washington still has stakes in the neighboring country given that any instability would allow terrorist groups to regroup that may not just pose threat to the region but the US interests too.

Pakistan is worried over the recent spike in cross-border terrorist attacks from Afghanistan and considers counter-terrorism cooperation vital to deny the banned TTP and other groups space in Afghanistan.