FO Rejects Speculations Surrounding Grossi’s Visit to Pakistan

Muhammad Asad
ISLAMABAD: Foreign Office Spokesperson, Ms. Mumtaz Zahra Baloch has categorically rejected the speculations surrounding the recent visit of the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Mariano Grossi to Pakistan.
At her weekly news briefing in Islamabad on Thursday, Ms. Baloch told the media that the IAEA deals in the use and regulation of civil nuclear energy, while Pakistan and the IAEA are jointly working in multiple areas including energy, agriculture, health, nuclear medicines, power generation, high yield crops, and drought reduction.
According to the Spokesperson, the media’s misperceptions are untrue and imaginary, while Pakistan’s military nuclear program and nuclear assets have no relations with the IAEA. Responding to a media query regarding recent raids on BBC’s offices in India, Ms. Baloch said that those raids were reprisal of BBC’s documentary on the Gujrat massacre of 2002 and another manifestation of shrinking space for freedom of media.
She said these incidents are a stain on India’s so-called democratic credentials. While commenting on the situation in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), the Spokesperson said that the human rights violations and government’s atrocities in IIOJK continue unabated during the past weeks, Pakistan also continues to raise its concerns regarding the prevailing dire situation in the valley along with multiple calls for peaceful and just resolution of the issue under the provisions of the UN Security Council.
When asked by The Frontier Post about Pak-Afghan relations under the Taliban regime, the Spokesperson was of the view that Pakistan has a persistent policy to develop good neighborly relationships with its neighbors and other countries in the region and around the globe.
According to her, Pakistan continues to develop its relations based on mutual trust and respect but we do not want to build any hierarchy in our relationship. Every relationship is important for us that contribute to the strength of the foreign policy of Pakistan. Ms. Zahra categorically noted that Pakistan and Afghanistan are neighbors having historic cultural and trade ties, while Pakistan intends to enhance its relations with Afghanistan in trade, security, and other fields of mutual interest.
According to the Spokesperson, the Pakistani government, NGOs, and charity organizations have dispatched humanitarian assistance to Turkiye consisting of 12 cargo flights and 21 NLC trucks, while 2 fights and 12 trucks had been sent to Syria so far. The Spokesperson informed the media that Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif was proceeding on a two-day official visit to Turkiye to express solidarity on the behalf of entire Pakistani nation with the government and the people of Turkiye at this movement of grief and calamity. To another question she said that the second round of Pak-US mid-level Defense and Security Dialogue was currently underway in Washington, meanwhile, a US interagency delegation will commence its three-day visit to Pakistan today.
According to Ms. Baloch, the bilateral engagement would be aimed at the institutionalization of trade and investment, clean energy, health, climate change, security, and other aspects of bilateral interest. To another question regarding the sale of Kashmiri land to non-Kashmitis and Indian nationals, Ms. Zahra said that the Indian government was involved in demographic change in the disputed territory while the government of Pakistan was actively pursuing this issue globally.
According to her, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has written letters to UN Secretary-General, President UN Security Council, and President OIC to apprise them about the dire situation of human rights and illegal actions of the Modi regime that is seriously undermining the security situation in the region.