Former Pak high commissioner takes on Imran Khan; calls government's diplomacy 'publicity-stunt'
Former Pakistan High Commissioner to India, Abdul Basit, has taken on Imran Khan on his 'un-impactful' diplomacy.
Speaking to a Pakistani news channel, Basit said, "If your diplomacy is all about appeasing the public in Pakistan, then it is of no use. I urge the government to do something that is of some value."
Referring to Pakistani FM Shah Mehmood Qureshi's claim of 58 countries supporting Pakistan at the UNHRC, Basit said there is no basis to this statement as long as Pakistan can not name the 58 countries.
"Who are those 58 countries that support Pakistan? We want to know. If countries can not support you openly then that support is no support," Basit added.
He also made fun of the Pakistani claims by saying, "If this is the approach they wanted to take, they should have named 190 countries (excluding India and Israel) and said everyone was standing with us. But the problem with that would have been that the countries would then have openly come out and disassociated themselves from these claims made by the Pakistani government."
Basit also challenged his government's claims of 'diplomatic achievements' at the UNSC and UNHRC.
"We claim that we have won a great diplomatic achievement at the UNSC and the UNHRC, but in reality, the UNSC was only just a meeting and no statement was issued after the meeting got over. As a diplomat, i do not weigh in too much on this kind of diplomacy. Whenever there is a consensus in such international forums there must be a presidential statement or some other kind of statement," he said.
Abdul Basit was Pakistan's High Commissioner to India from 2014 to 2017.
