Foreign office rejects reports Pakistani delegation visited Israel, says trip arranged by foreign NGO

ISLAMABAD: The foreign office of Pakistan on Thursday dismissed media reports that said a delegation of the country was visiting Israel, as it pointed out the tour was arranged by an international organization which was not based in Pakistan.
Media reports emerged earlier this week that a Pakistani delegation, including a former government minister, had arrived in Jerusalem to meet Israeli officials after the organizers of the trip shared the news on Twitter.
Pakistan does not recognize Israel and has always spoken in favor of a viable Palestinian state.
However, a US-based non-government organization, Sharaka, has organized visits involving dual Pakistani nationals to the Jewish state in recent months.
“The reported visit in question was organized by a foreign NGO which is not based in Pakistan,” foreign office spokesperson Asim Iftikhar Ahmad said in a statement issued in response to media queries. “Pakistan’s position on the Palestinian issue is clear and unambiguous. There is no change whatsoever in our policy on which there is complete national consensus.”
He continued Pakistan had always “supported the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination.”
“The establishment of an independent, viable and contiguous Palestinian State with pre-1967 borders and Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital, in accordance with the relevant UN and OIC resolutions, is imperative for just and lasting peace in the region,” Ahmed added.
Sharaka, which was founded in the wake of the Abraham Accords brokered by the Trump administration to help normalize relations between Israel and other Middle Eastern states, previously took journalist Ahmed Quraishi to Jerusalem.
This time the organization has taken Nasim Ashraf, a Pakistani-American, who remained the country’s development minister and chairman of its cricket board.
Speaking to the Associated Press, Anila Ali, a Pakistani-born US citizen, who organized the visit, confirmed of Ashraf’s presence in Jerusalem “to promote interfaith harmony.”
She also urged Pakistan to revisit its Israel policy by establishing diplomatic relations with it.
“If Turkey can do it, then why cannot we do it,” she asked while speaking to the international news agency.