ISLAMABAD: Rizwan Saeed, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), has said Islamabad would raise the issue of an accidental missile launch by India into Pakistan at next week’s meeting of the OIC council of foreign ministers.
On Tuesday, India said it was reviewing its standing operating procedures for operations, maintenance and inspection of weapons systems following the accidental firing of an unarmed surface-to-surface missile that ended up in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province last Wednesday. There was no loss of life.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said Islamabad rejects the Indian statement as "incomplete" and that he had written to the UN Security Council on the matter and also asked the international community to take the matter up. Last week, the Pakistan foreign office demanded a joint probe into the incident.
Pakistan is now also poised to take up the matter at the 48th session of the OIC council of the foreign minister’s, to be held in Islamabad on March 22-23.
Over the years, the OIC has passed several resolutions on the peace process between nuclear-armed neigbouring rivals Pakistan and India.
“As one of the standing resolutions that has been successively passed by the council of the foreign ministers previously, India-Pakistan peace process is a nomenclature of that,’ Saeed told Arab News in an interview on Tuesday. “Definitely, since it (missile misfiring) is an important development, there will be an opportunity to bring it to the notice of the member states.”
Pakistan is expecting 56 OIC member states to participate in next week’s conference.
“We have received ministerial-level (foreign ministers) participation from 48 countries thus far and there is still time in the conference, so we hope that there will be add-ons,” Saeed said.
Last year, around 70 delegations from OIC member states, non-members and regional and international organizations attended the 17th Extraordinary Session of the OIC's Council of Foreign Ministers hosted by Islamabad to discuss the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. At the summit's conclusion, OIC member states agreed to establish a Humanitarian Trust Fund to channel assistance, appoint a special envoy and work together with the UN in the war-ravaged country.
The session, however, did not accord recognition to the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
Saeed said the process of recognizing the Taliban government would begin when it submitted a formal application.
“Recognition of any government or any authority in a member state has a process at the OIC and the forum to accord that approval is the council of the foreign ministers,” the diplomat said. “Once there is a formal request from the Afghan authority … the council and its procedures will come into play. And the entire membership will have a say.”
He said approval would be accorded after following the proper procedure and “if there is consensus.”
Speaking about the role of Saudi Arabia in the OIC, Saeed said the kingdom’s position in the body “only stands to grow in future.”
“It has done a lot economically as well as in terms of guiding and steering and also promoting the political and economic agenda of the organization,” he said. “I am confident that it only stands to grow further.”
Pakistan to take up Indian missile issue at OIC foreign ministers' conference next week
https://arab.news/z5aqr
Pakistan to take up Indian missile issue at OIC foreign ministers' conference next week
- Arab News interviews Rizwan Saeed, Pakistan’s permanent representative to OIC
- Pakistan expecting 56 OIC member states to participate in conference from March 22-23
Pakistan plans Benghazi consulate, lending legitimacy to Libya’s eastern authorities
- Libya descended into turmoil after a 2011 NATO-backed uprising toppled Muammar Qaddafi and has been divided into eastern, western authorities
- The UN-recognized government in Tripoli controls the west, while the Libyan National Army forces based in Benghazi hold the east and the south
KARACHI: Pakistan is in talks to open a consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, three sources with knowledge of the matter said, a move that could give a diplomatic boost to eastern authorities in their rivalry with Libya’s west.
Libya descended into turmoil after a 2011 NATO-backed uprising toppled Muammar Qaddafi and has been divided into eastern and western authorities since a 2014 civil war. The UN-recognized government in Tripoli controls the west, while
Libyan National Army leader Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar’s forces based in Benghazi hold the east and south, including major oilfields.
Islamabad would be joining a small group of countries with a diplomatic presence in Benghazi. Haftar discussed the move with officials during an ongoing visit to Pakistan, the sources said.
Haftar met Pakistan’s army chief on Monday to discuss “professional cooperation,” the Pakistani military said. He was due to sit down with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday, the sources said, declining to be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Pakistan’s prime minister’s office and foreign ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
The LNA’s official media page said Haftar and his son Saddam met senior Pakistani army officials “within the framework of strengthening bilateral relations and opening up broader horizons for coordination in areas of common interest.” It did not give further details and Reuters could not immediately reach eastern Libyan authorities for comment.
Pakistan’s air force said in a statement that Saddam Khalifa Haftar met Air Chief Zaheer Ahmed Baber Sidhu to discuss expanding defense cooperation, including joint training, with Islamabad reaffirming its support for the “capability development” of the Libyan air force. Pakistan’s army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir visited Benghazi in December, where he signed a multibillion-dollar defense deal with the LNA, previously reported by Reuters.
All three sources said the decision to open a consulate in Benghazi was linked to the $4 billion defense deal, one of Pakistan’s largest-ever arms sales.
Libya has been under a UN arms embargo since 2011, although UN experts have said it is ineffective. Pakistani officials involved in the December deal said it did not violate UN restrictions. Haftar has historically been an ally of the UAE, which supported him with air power and viewed him as a bulwark against extremists, while Pakistan — the only nuclear-armed Muslim-majority nation — signed a wide-ranging mutual defense pact with Saudi Arabia late last year.
