NEW DELHI: The Government has taken strong exception to a Statement by the Pakistan Government, which was circulated here by its High Commission, containing “un acceptable references” to a senior Indian political leader. The repetition of such language and personal attacks on Indian leaders by the Pakistan High Commission will be regarded as serious by the Indian Government, an official spokesman said here recently.
The statement had criticized the Maharashtra Chief Minister, Sharad Pawar, by name for alleging the Involvement of Pakistan in the murder of two politicians in Bombay. It had said that Pawar was endeavoring to involve Pakistan in the hope of not only covering his own “failings” and reported “connivance” with Bombay’s underworld but also creating circumstances for harassing and interrogating innocent Muslims.
Reacting to the High Commission release, the official spokesman said the statement was tendentious, provocative and totally contrary to all diplomatic norms. “The External Affairs Ministry has pointed out repeatedly that irrespective of Pakistani attempts at obfuscation and negatism, its complicity in the planning and execution of the bomb blasts in Bombay was a fact. The statement made by the Government of Pakistan denigrates by name a senior and respected Indian political leader. The dissemination of such a statement by the Pakistan High Commission in India is characteristic of the unacceptable and extreme language used by the High Commission in recent months to which attention of the Pakistani authorities has been drawn time and again,” the spokesman said.
Striking a strong note, the spokesman said that such conduct belied any expression of friendship and cooperation from Islamabad and was totally inconsistent with diplomatic propriety. The repetition of such language and personal attacks on Indian leaders by the Pakistan High Commission would be regarded as serious by the Government of India.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 25, 1993
