ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Tuesday rejected Indian media reports about a delay in the appointment of its envoy to the United States as "baseless," the Pakistani foreign office said, with Washington-Islamabad ties getting increasingly colder for geo-political reasons.
The foreign office sent the nomination of Ambassador Masood Khan, who served as the Azad Kashmir president until August 2021, to Washington in November last year. His nomination was supposed to be approved in up to eight-week time, but the US State Department has sought some more time for the clearance.
Sardar Masood Khan, President of Azad Kashmir, talking to Arab News in Islamabad on Monday, August 12, 2019. (AN photo)
Meanwhile Indian news agency ANI reported that in a letter to Joe Biden, Congressman Scott Perry urged the US president to reject Khan's appointment as it would undermine US interests in the region.
Islamabad rejected the “scandalous claims” made by Indian media outlets in their reports.
"This is a part of the wider Indian disinformation campaign to malign Pakistan and those who represent Pakistan, by using fake news to make scandalous claims and baseless allegations," Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, the spokesperson for the Pakistani foreign office, said in a statement.
"Ambassador Masood Khan is a highly accomplished diplomat with 40 years of experience in both multilateral and bilateral diplomacy. His Agre’ment is being processed in the US system."
Ambassador Khan has previously served as Pakistan’s permanent representative to the United Nations (UN) and its ambassador to China. He is to replace the outgoing Pakistani envoy in Washington Asad Majeed Khan.
The development comes amid years of strained relations between Washington and Pakistan since US officials thought they were not getting requisite support from Islamabad to win the war in Afghanistan.
They have suffered a greater setback after the arrival of President Joe Biden who refused to speak to Pakistan's prime minister, even as his administration continued to seek Islamabad's support in Afghanistan.
Washington does not have the same amount of interest in Pakistan after the pullout of foreign forces from Afghanistan in August 2021. It is also critical of Islamabad's close ties with China, although Pakistan has said that it does not want to become a part of any bloc.
