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Controversial list of terrorists taken off Heart of Asia declaration

By Mariana Baabar
December 22, 2017

ISLAMABAD: More than twenty days after achieving a moral and diplomatic victory over India, the Foreign Office (FO) spokesman pointed out that a “controversial” list of terrorists through which Pakistan was affected, has been taken off the declaration of the Heart of Asia Conference (HoA) held in Amritsar in 2016.

The breakthrough came on December 1 in Bakuy where the HoA-IP conference was held and Pakistan managed to through “effective and successful” diplomacy, convince member countries to drop the selected list from the Baku Declaration and referred the matter to the Working group on Counter-Terrorism to come up with a comprehensive list of all terrorist groups in the Heart of Asia Region.

“Ever since a list of selected proscribed groups made it to the outcome document (Amritsar Declaration) of HoA-IP Ministerial Conference in December 2016, India celebrated it as a huge diplomatic success over Pakistan and started misusing the list for political point scoring against Pakistan”, explained the spokesman.

Pakistan is no hurry to execute India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) agent, Commander Kulbhushan Jhadev, as his presence is a cruel reminder to New Delhi and important world capitals the extent to which the Modi government goes to carry out terrorism inside Pakistan.

“It was after great difficulty and certainly tremendous efforts by Pakistan’s agency to arrest Jhadev inside Balochistan.

This senior serving naval officer is the biggest catch of the enemy as far as one can remember.”, a source confides to The News.

The spokesman had similar thoughts while replying to a query, “On the possible immediate execution of, and this being his last meeting with his family, let me assure you that the Commander is under no threat of immediate execution and his mercy petitions are still pending”.

Chefs in the Foreign Office familiar with vegetarian cuisine will be readying a meal for the mother and wife of Jhadav keeping in mind Pakistan’s hospitality and Islamic traditions where guests specially women are treaty with dignity, even if they are related to a self confessed spy.

“No foreigner visiting the Foreign Office has ever left without refreshments and the ministry is expected to keep up this tradition”, is one comment heard.

While the Indian High Commission has still not notified the Foreign Office which diplomat would accompany Jadhav’s family, it is expected that the Deputy High Commissioner could be a likely choice.

Sources from Delhi tell The News that it is unlikely that the Indian government would welcome a media interaction with the Indian ladies.

“ They are terrified as it is, and will want to spend every second with Jadhav. Unused to the media , they probably would only appeal to the Chief of the Army Staff to forgive their relative and spare his life.”

“Also the Indian High Commission cannot guard them from a very hawkish Pakistani media. They speak a dialect of Marahathi and the Foreign Office will have to arrange for an interpreter unless there is an Indian diplomat who can understand the language”, sources confide.

“We are still waiting for an Indian decision about the media interaction. Pakistan decided to permit the meeting of the wife of Commander Jadhav with him purely on humanitarian grounds.

The Indian side subsequently also requested that the mother may accompany the wife.

Pakistan has accepted the Indian request. Pakistan has issued visas to both the ladies. The meeting will be held in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs”, the spokesman added.

Hours before a vote in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) , on the status of Jerusalem, Pakistan says, “Freedom has no price” and Pakistan’s vote will be consistent with its position, while fully endorsing the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) position that East Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine, while rejecting the US stance as "dangerous" calling on the international community to follow in its footsteps.

The United Nations General Assembly will hold an emergency session on Thursday night (Pakistan time) to vote on the controversial US decision where analysts say that the non-binding motion is expected to pass easily in the 193-member United Nations body.

The resolution condemns the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Pakistan used to threats from Washington, will still vote for the resolution despite President Donald Trump’s threats of cutting off aid to countries that vote in favor of the draft UN resolution.

With Trump completely isolated in the world body, very jittery is the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is ready to see egg on his face.

According to the United States media reports Netanyahu described the United Nations as a “house of lies”, while rejecting the resolution even before a single vote has been cast.

“Jerusalem is our capital and we will continue to build there, and foreign embassies, led by the United States, will move to Jerusalem. It will happen”, he stated.

Meanwhile the spokesman at the Foreign Office during the weekly media briefing said, “Pakistan views the decision of US Administration to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and to shift the United States Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem as violation of relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions”.

He pointed out that Pakistan firmly believes that the establishment of a viable, independent and contiguous State of Palestine, on the basis of internationally agreed parameters, the pre-1967 borders and with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital is the only lasting solution of the Middle East crisis.