Pakistan wants to tell Afghanistan it's important: Nehal Hashmi
Hashmi said Pakistan could send lower ranked official but doesn't want to humiliate other states
LAHORE: (Dunya News) – Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) leader Nehal Hashmi has on Saturday said that Pakistan is sending its foreign advisor to India for Heart of Asia Conference only because it wants to let Afghanistan know that it is important for Pakistan. He said that Pakistan could’ve sent a lower ranked official but it didn’t want to humiliate the other countries attending the conference, reported Dunya News.
Talking on Dunya News program TezTar5, Nehal Hashmi said that Pakistan would never show the courtesy towards India in bilateral relations after what India has been doing on Line of Control for last several months but since the conference was going to discuss Afghanistan mainly, it was Pakistan’s obligation to attend it.
Dunya News Chief National Security Correspondent Wajahat Saeed Khan said on the show that Pakistan must attend the conference as it cannot afford to remain detached with the happenings in Afghanistan but ‘India sabotaged SAARC conference that was to be held in Pakistan by telling other countries of the region to boycott the conference talking place in Pakistan. If they are displaying such hawkish attitude, why couldn’t Pakistan send a lower ranked official to India for Heart of Asia Conference to send a message that India wasn’t important for Pakistan’.
Responding to Wajahat, Nehal Hashmi said that Pakistan would never show any courtesy to India in bilateral relations but ‘we have stakes in Afghanistan and we want to give them a message that they are important for us’.
Hosting the show, Salman Hasan said that India was trying to upset Pakistani staff working at Pakistani High Commission in India by holding their salaries. Wajahat said that it was a petty issue and will probably soon be resolved. He added that the real issue was Heart of Asia Conference and Pakistan must have used it to send a message across to India.
