ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Foreign Office on Tuesday responded to reports of a group of Pakistani journalists traveling to Israel, saying it was not “possible” under the existing rules.
Israel Hayom, a Hebrew-language Israeli newspaper, last week published a report that a 10-member Pakistani delegation of journalists, intellectuals and influencers had visited Israel for a week.
English-language Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post said this week these Pakistanis visited Israel to learn about the Holocaust and the October 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas.
Pakistan does not recognize Israel and has consistently called for an independent Palestinian state based on “internationally agreed parameters” and pre-1967 borders.
“The Government of Pakistan has noted reports regarding Pakistani journalists traveling to Israel. In this regard, it is clarified that Pakistani passports explicitly state they are ‘not valid for travel to Israel’,” the Pakistani Foreign Office said in response to media queries.
“Therefore, no such visit is possible under existing regulations.”
The Hayom newspaper report said the ten Pakistani journalists and researchers, including two women, arrived in Israel this month and carried passports declaring their invalidity for travel to Israel.
“Despite this, they bravely accepted an invitation from Sharaka, an organization working to strengthen relations between Israel and South Asian countries,” the report said. “To protect the delegation members, their passports were not stamped, and publication of their visit was delayed until they returned safely home.”
However, the Foreign Office in Islamabad said Pakistan’s position on Israel “remains unchanged.”
“Pakistan does not recognize Israel and steadfastly supports the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, including the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders,” it said.
The South Asian country has consistently called for a cessation of Israeli military campaign in Gaza and strongly condemned the resumption of Israeli strikes in the territory last Tuesday, saying they could fully reignite the 17-month-old war that has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians.
Islamabad has also dispatched more than two dozen aid consignments for the Palestinian people since Israel began pounding Gaza in Oct. 2023.
“Pakistan reiterates its unwavering commitment to a just and peaceful resolution of the Palestinian issue in accordance with relevant UN resolutions and the aspirations of the Palestinian people,” the Pakistani Foreign Office added.
Pakistani journalists’ visit to Israel not ‘possible’ under existing rules, Islamabad says
https://arab.news/m6w64
Pakistani journalists’ visit to Israel not ‘possible’ under existing rules, Islamabad says
- Israeli media reported a 10-member Pakistani delegation this month visited Israel for a week
- Islamabad says its position on Israel ‘remain unchanged,’ reiterates its support for Palestine
Imran Khan not a ‘national security threat,’ ex-PM’s party responds to Pakistan military
- Pakistan’s military spokesperson on Friday described Khan’s anti-army narrative as a “national security threat”
- PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan says words used by military spokesperson for Khan were “not appropriate”
ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party on Saturday responded to allegations by Pakistan military spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry from a day earlier, saying that he was not a “national security threat.”
Chaudhry, who heads the military’s media wing as director general of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), spoke to journalists on Friday, in which he referred to Khan as a “mentally ill” person several times during the press interaction. Chaudhry described Khan’s anti-army narrative as a “national security threat.”
The military spokesperson was responding to Khan’s social media post this week in which he accused Chief of Defense Forces Field Marshal Asim Munir of being responsible for “the complete collapse of the constitution and rule of law in Pakistan.”
“The people of Pakistan stand with Imran Khan, they stand with PTI,” the party’s secretary-general, Salman Akram Raja, told reporters during a news conference.
“Imran Khan is not a national security threat. Imran Khan has kept the people of this country united.”
Raja said there were several narratives in the country, including those that created tensions along ethnic and sectarian lines, but Khan had rejected all of them and stood with one that the people of Pakistan supported.
PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan, flanked by Raja, criticized the military spokesperson as well, saying his press talk on Thursday had “severely disappointed” him.
“The words that were used [by the military spokesperson] were not appropriate,” Gohar said. “Those words were wrong.”
‘NATURAL OUTCOME’
Speaking to reporters earlier on Saturday, Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif defended the military spokesperson’s remarks against Khan.
“When this kind of language is used for individuals as well as for institutions, then a reaction is a natural outcome,” he said.
“The same thing is happening on the Twitter accounts being run in his [Khan’s] name. If the DG ISPR has given any reaction to it, then I believe it was a very measured reaction.”
Khan, who was ousted after a parliamentary vote of confidence in April 2022, blames the country’s powerful military for removing him from power by colluding with his political opponents. Both deny the allegations.
The former prime minister, who has been in prison since August 2023 on a slew of charges he says are politically motivated, also alleges his party was denied victory by the army and his political rivals in the 2024 general election through rigging.
The army and the government both deny his allegations.
