ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office said on Friday that former president Pervez Musharraf’s trial on treason charges was an internal matter that would not concern the international community.
“It is a domestic issue. I don’t think it concerns anyone outside Pakistan, not in the region or outside,” Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam said in reply to a question about the former military ruler’s trial. The comments were, however, not included in the transcript of the weekly briefing issued afterwards.
The spokesperson dismissed speculations that Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal’s upcoming visit pertained to the future of Mr Musharraf.
“This is normal interaction between states. Saudi Arabia and Pakistan enjoy a very close relationship and this would be the first high-level visit after the new government in Pakistan took office,” Ms Aslam said.
The Saudi foreign minister is arriving on Monday on a two-day visit during which he would be meeting Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, President Mamnoon Hussain and Adviser to PM on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj Aziz.
The visit dates became public as the beginning of Mr Musharraf’s trial had to be delayed because of his sudden illness and hospitalisation. With memories of Saudi role in Mr Sharif’s exile in 2000 still fresh, news of the Saudi foreign minister’s visit led to rumours that Riyadh was negotiating another deal, this time to save the former military ruler.
Ms Aslam explained that Prime Minister Sharif had extended the invitation for the trip to the Saudi minister when the two met in September on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session.
“The dates were being worked out and now he will be here on 6th and 7th of January,” she said.
While the bilateral portion would dominate the visit, diplomatic observers believe that Saudi Arabia is more interested in getting Pakistan’s support for its position on Syria and sharing its concerns over West’s deal with Iran on its nuclear programme.
Ms Aslam said the two countries had an ongoing defence collaboration, but wasn’t aware of any new proposal for security cooperation.
According to the Foreign Policy magazine, Saudi Arabia, after getting disillusioned with United States over Syria, was now turning to Pakistan to train the Syrian rebels.
Islamabad had on Saudi prodding in 2011 allowed Bahrain to recruit Pakistanis in its police reportedly for crushing the uprising in Manama. The recruitment was then done through Fauji Security Services (Pvt) Ltd, a subsidiary of Fauji Foundation.
IRAN: The Spokesperson apparently in balancing act said the government’s lines of communications with Tehran were open.
“We have multiple channels of communications with Iran and we are constantly in touch. We have had high-level exchanges. Recently the Iranian Foreign Minister Mr Javad Zarif was in Pakistan to attend the D-8 Ministerial Conference and that was also an opportunity to exchange views on bilateral relations,” she noted while referring to border incidents last month.
Ms Aslam said the border incidents might have resulted because of transnational criminals trying to cross the border. “It is not something that happens on a daily basis. Sometimes there are smugglers and other criminals that commit crimes in one country and run into the other. It might have happened while chasing those trans-national criminals,” she said.
AFGHANISTAN: Soothing away some frank remarks by Ambassador to the US Jalil Abbas Jilani, the Spokesperson said that Afghanistan being a sovereign country had the right to take its decisions.
Mr Jilani told reporters in Washington that complete withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan was not desirable.
“From Pakistan’s point of view what is desirable is stability in Afghanistan which impacts us in more than one ways. … We are interested in the end-results,” she added.
INDIA: On reports about Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s likely visit to Pakistan, the Spokesperson said he would be welcomed.
Ms Aslam was reacting to a statement by Dr Singh that he still expected to travel to Pakistan before completing his tenure as prime minister. His tenure ends in May.
“There is an outstanding invitation to the Indian prime minister which was extended to him by Pakistan and was accepted .We don’t have any timeframe for the visit as yet. Obviously we would welcome the visit,” she said.
MISSIONS: Ms Aslam said that the government had decided to close its missions in Chile and Ireland as part of austerity measures.