ISLAMABAD – Pakistan has taken important decision over the diplomaticstandoff with India as the tensions rise between the two nuclear armedneighbours.
Pakistan has decided not to send its high commissioner back to New Delhiuntil the overall situation improves and Indian secret agencies stopharassing its diplomatic staff and their families.
“Our high commissioner will not return to India anytime soon,” said asenior foreign office official just hours after Sohail Mahmood returnedfrom New Delhi on Friday.
Initially, it was thought that he would return to New Delhi afterconsultations with relevant authorities on the continued harassment andbullying of Pakistani diplomatic staff and their families, includingchildren by Indian secret agencies.
The Indian external affairs ministry even played down Pakistan’s move as aroutine affair.
However, the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told TheExpress Tribune that the high commissioner would stay back for anindefinite period or until Indian secret agencies stop intimidating thestaff and families of their diplomatic mission in New Delhi.
In other words, Pakistan recalled its envoy to New Delhi as a protest tillthe situation improves.
Last time, it was in 2002 when the two countries recalled their respectivehigh commissioners in the aftermath of an attack on the Indian parliamentin December 2001.
It was India, which first withdrew its envoy as a token of protest overPakistan’s failure to stop alleged cross-border terrorism. New Delhi thenexpelled Pakistani High Commissioner Ashraf Jahangir Qazi.
However, this time Pakistan took the unprecedented decision to recall itsenvoy. It is not clear how India will react to Pakistan’s decision.
The official justified the move, insisting that under current circumstancesit was not possible for the high commissioner to operate out of New Delhi.
“Children have never been harassed even when two countries have had theworst of relationship,” the official pointed out.
He said the children of Pakistan’s deputy high commissioner were stopped bythe agents of an India secret service for 40 minutes on a Delhi’s road.“This is totally unacceptable,” the official said.
When asked whether Pakistan was contemplating withdrawing the families ofdiplomatic staff, the official said it might have to if the current slidein relationship was not arrested.
Tensions between the two countries have been already running high becauseof frequent clashes between the Pakistani and Indian troops along the Lineof Control (LoC) and the Working Boundary.
But the latest diplomatic standoff will have far more implications if Indiaalso decides to recall its high commissioner from Islamabad.