FO to investigate Indian woman's claims about Pakistan HC misconduct
Pakistan
FO to investigate Indian woman's claims about Pakistan HC misconduct
(Web Desk) - The Foreign Office (FO) stated on Friday that they “looked into” the matter that a member of their staff had inappropriately questioned an Indian woman at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi. The FO also stated that they “have zero tolerance for misbehaviour and harassment.”
According to India Today, a head of department (HOD) at Punjab University reportedly claimed that she went to the high commission to apply for a visa, and a staff member there allegedly questioned her in an awkward manner.
The woman claimed “He asked me why I wasn’t married. How I live without marriage, what do I do for my sexual desires.”
She intended to travel to Lahore to give a lecture at a university and take pictures of the city s landmarks. She requested that the issue should be addressed in a letter to Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar.
The FO s spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, said in a statement “We place considerable emphasis to correct etiquette and manner for all visa and consular applicants.”
All of our diplomatic personnel are mandated by strict guidelines to act professionally.
Ms Mumtaz however, expressed astonishment at the claimed incident s timing and “the way it has been raised.”
She continued, “There are effective channels in place for the resolution of all public grievances.
Cold Relations
The two countries’ bilateral relations have been difficult. The FO last week requested India to stop making false accusations and supporting terrorism in Pakistan.
According to a statement from Spokesperson, Baloch “India has been involved in a spiteful campaign over the past few years to deceive the international community by fabricating a story of victimhood and spreading hateful anti-Pakistan propaganda. This practice needs to end.”
She was reacting to the latest rant against Pakistan that Indian Foreign Minister Jaishankar had launched when he was in Vienna.
“Since the epicentre is located so near to India, naturally our experiences and ideas are useful to others,” Jaishankar said at a press briefing with his Austrian counterpart Alexander Schallenberg.
Later in his media interviews, he justified using the term “epicentre of terrorism” to describe Pakistan and claimed he might have been harsher. The Indian external affairs minister previously stated “I could say things that are far worse than epicentre. Since this is a nation that attacked our parliament a few years ago, the epicentre of what has been occurring to us is a highly diplomatic world.”
Earlier, Jaishankar made similar accusations against Pakistan. He called Pakistan the “epicentre of terrorism” in a news conference following a UN Security Council meeting in December, which prompted Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari to remind him that the Indian prime minister was the “butcher of Gujarat.”
