Pakistan summons US envoy over Washington’s meddling in internal affairs
Pakistan’s foreign office has summoned the acting US charge d'affaires to lodge a strong protest over Washington’s meddling in the internal affairs of the country.
Pakistani media, citing diplomatic sources, said on Thursday that the senior US diplomat was handed over the protest note for the language used by an American official during a formal communication regarding a no-confidence motion in Pakistan’s parliament aimed at ousting Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The English-language Dawn newspaper said the US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Donald Lu, had in a meeting with Pakistan’s Envoy Asad Majeed warned that there could be implications if Khan survived the opposition’s no-confidence motion on April 3.
A Pakistani foreign office official confirmed that a "demarche" was handed over to the acting US envoy in Islamabad, adding that Washington was told that the use of such undiplomatic language was unacceptable.
A senior Pakistani journalist, Nasim Zehra, in a Twitter post on Thursday also confirmed that the US Department of State official, referring to Donald Lu, had told the Pakistani ambassador that as long as PM Khan was in power, “relations with Pakistan cannot improve”.
In a threatening tone, he further said that if Khan was removed from the office, Pakistan “will be forgiven for its mistakes”, which Zahra described as “outrageous official communication”.
Prime Minister Khan, who has turned down opposition calls to resign, in a televised address on Thursday said that a foreign country was cheering a no-confidence vote because of his recent visit to Russia.
Khan even named the United States as the origin of a "message" that he said proved a foreign country was meddling in his country’s internal affairs.
He called the opposition’s move to oust him a "foreign conspiracy", linking it to his last month’s visit to Moscow, which came hours before Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a military operation in Ukraine.
ME
