ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed that Indian High Commission diplomats in Islamabad attended the invitation-only Pakistan Day parade on Friday — but denied that the invitation was extended by the Pakistan army.
India’s Union Minister, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, and Deputy High Commissioner J.P. Singh were among those who attended the parade.
A report in local media earlier quoted an unnamed army official claiming the “initiative” was taken by the Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Qamar Bajwa, to “send a peace message to India.”
The report claimed the invitation was a signal that Pakistan “stands for peace,” but can defend its soil “in case of any misadventure.”
“The host of the ceremony was not the Chief of Army Staff, therefore reports suggesting he invited the Indian delegates are incorrect,” a foreign office spokesman, Dr. Mohammed Faisal, told Arab News.
Invitations to national events are usually approved by the office of the head of state.
Extending invitations to foreign missions in Pakistan to attend state-organized events and ceremonies is a “routine matter,” he said.
“It’s not a warlike situation where we would not invite certain diplomats.”
Faisal said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs vetted diplomats and foreign officials who were invited but had no further role.
“If the Ministry of Foreign Affairs holds a function, only then do we send out invitations,” he said.
Indian diplomats rarely attend national functions in Pakistan following border skirmishes and stalled talks between the two nuclear rivals.
The arrest of an Indian spy in Pakistan in March, 2016, and his later confession have caused further tension.
More recently, India and Pakistan have accused each other of harassing diplomats stationed in Islamabad and New Delhi.
In January, Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, attended India’s 69th Republic Day celebrations at the UN. Her participation was surprising, but the gesture was seen as a move that Pakistan is seeking to end the impasse on a range of issues dividing the two countries.
Several leading Pakistani officials attended the Indian Republic Day ceremony in Islamabad hosted by the Indian High Commission.
In his Pakistan Day speech, President Mamnoon Hussain said that the country sought regional peace, but its eastern neighbor should not interpret this as a sign of weakness. The decades-old Kashmir dispute can only be resolved peacefully, he said.
Each year on March 23, Pakistan celebrates the All-India Muslim League’s 1940 resolution calling for the formation of a Muslim-majority nation state. Seven years later, a country was partitioned from British India.
