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  • Reports of Pakistanis meeting Israeli officials ‘load of rubbish’ — Pakistani foreign minister 


Reports of Pakistanis meeting Israeli officials ‘load of rubbish’ — Pakistani foreign minister 

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi speaks during a press conference in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on Friday, December 18, 2020. (AN photo)
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Updated 18 December 2020
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Reports of Pakistanis meeting Israeli officials ‘load of rubbish’ — Pakistani foreign minister 

  • Shah Mahmood Qureshi is in the UAE to discuss bilateral cooperation and welfare of the Pakistani diaspora
  • Says hopeful for a “resolution soon” to a work visa “issue” with the UAE 
Updated 18 December 2020
ASMA ALI ZAIN

ABU DHABI: Pakistan’s stance on not recognizing Israel is unchanged, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said in Abu Dhabi on Friday, adding that media reports that Pakistani officials had held secret meetings in Israel recently were “rubbish.”
The Israel Hayom and other Israeli media outlets reported this week in a veiled reference to Pakistan that a senior adviser to the leader of a large Muslim majority country in Asia that had no diplomatic ties with Israel had visited the Jewish state two weeks ago with a delegation of senior officials to discuss the potential normalization of relations. 
Pakistan currently does not recognize the state of Israel over its thwarting of Palestinians’ aspirations for a state of their own. Israel captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the Sinai peninsula and the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights in the 1967 Middle East war. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future free state, a demand Pakistan has supported for decades. 
“Pakistan’s position vis-a-vis Israel has not changed,” Qureshi told reporters during a press conference in Abu Dhabi. The foreign minister is in the United Arab Emirates on a two-day visit. 
In response to a question about recent media reports of covert meetings of a Pakistani delegation with top Israeli officials, Qureshi said the reports were “a load of rubbish.”

“This issue keeps popping up ... We have already clarified this earlier and issued a statement on this that we have had no meetings with Israeli officials,” he said.
The foreign minister’s visit to the UAE comes at a time when international media has reported that the UAE had stopped issuing new visas to citizens of 13 mostly Muslim-majority countries, including Pakistan. 
“This issue came under discussion and I gave my point of view and understood their point of view,” Qureshi said. “I also discussed this with the foreign minister and also with the prime minister [of the UAE].” 
I am “hoping for a resolution soon,” the foreign minister added.


The UAE is home to 1.2 million Pakistanis and the second largest host to overseas Pakistani workers and source of foreign remittances, after Saudi Arabia.
The foreign minister also said he had just received intelligence information that India was planning surgical strikes against Pakistan.
“This is a serious development and I have also learnt that they have tried to seek tacit approval from who they consider to be their partners,” Qureshi said. 
Pakistan and India have long had tense relations and fought two wars over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, which they both rule in part but claim in full. 
On Thursday, Qureshi met Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Foreign Minister of the United Arab Emirates and discussed the “welfare” of Pakistanis living in the UAE and agreed to enhance trade and investment ties.
“Praising the hard work and dedication of Pakistani professionals and workers in the UAE, Foreign Minister Qureshi acknowledged their positive contribution toward progress and development of the UAE as well as Pakistan,” the foreign office said in a statement. “He discussed with his counterpart matters pertaining to Pakistani diaspora’s welfare and stressed the need to further strengthen people to people linkages between the two brotherly countries.”

Topics: Pakistan-UAE Israel Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi

Pakistan Supreme Court halts trial of prominent lawyer over alleged anti-military tweets

Updated 57 min 11 sec ago
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Pakistan Supreme Court halts trial of prominent lawyer over alleged anti-military tweets

  • Top court orders lower court to pause proceedings after lawyers allege due-process breaches
  • Mazari-Hazir, husband face charges under cybercrime law that carry up to 14 years in prison
Updated 57 min 11 sec ago
NAIMAT KHAN

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Thursday halted the cybercrime trial of prominent human rights lawyer Imaan Mazari-Hazir and her husband, Hadi Ali Chattha, after their lawyers argued that a lower court had recorded witness testimony in their absence, violating due-process rules.

Mazari-Hazir, one of Pakistan’s most outspoken civil liberties lawyers, and Chattha are being prosecuted under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) over posts on X that authorities say incited ethnic divisions and portrayed the military as involved in “terrorism.” Both reject the allegations. If convicted under the relevant PECA provision, they face a prison term of up to 14 years.

The case has drawn broad attention in Pakistan’s legal community because Mazari-Hazir, who has been repeatedly detained over her criticism of the security establishment, argues that the trial court ignored basic procedural guarantees despite her medical leave request. The case also comes as Pakistan faces sustained scrutiny over the use of PECA against activists, journalists and political dissenters, with lawyers arguing that lower courts often move ahead without meeting minimum fair-trial standards.

The couple’s lawyer, Riasat Ali Azad, said his clients filed a petition in the Supreme Court because the lower court had moved ahead improperly.

“Today, the Supreme Court of Pakistan has stayed the lower court proceedings, the trial court proceedings and has said that the [Islamabad] High Court should decide our pending revision petition for which a date has already been fixed,” he told reporters.

Azad said the violation was clear under Pakistan’s Code of Criminal Procedure, which requires evidence to be recorded in the presence of the accused.

“Yet, on that very day, evidence of four witnesses was recorded in their absence, and a state counsel was appointed to conduct cross-examination on their behalf,” he said. “All these things are against the right to a fair trial under Articles 10 and 10-A.”

A three-judge bench led by Justice Muhammad Hashim Khan Kakar ordered the trial court to pause proceedings and instructed the Islamabad High Court to hear the couple’s pending criminal revision petition first.

The trial had been scheduled to resume on Dec.15, but the Supreme Court’s stay now freezes proceedings before both the additional sessions judge and the special PECA court. 

The Islamabad High Court is expected to hear the criminal revision petition next week.

Chattha, who is also a lawyer, said the SC ruling underscored the need for procedural safeguards.

“It is a victory for the constitution and the law,” he said, arguing that the trial court had ignored their request to re-record witness statements in their presence.

Topics: Supreme Court pf Pakistan Iman Mazari Hadi Ali Chattha

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