Pak foreign office gaffes over diplomatic fiasco in NY OIC meet

Islamabad

Confusions confounded existed in the Pakistan Foreign Office as it tied itself in knots earlier this week. After IANS reported on how the Maldivian and the UAE Ambassadors in the OIC meeting in New York delivered a crippling blow to Pakistan chicanery over reported Indian 'Islamophobia', Pakistans foreign office went and put its foot in the mouth, shoes and socks included.

Incidentally, Pakistan's leading daily 'Dawn' also reported the same story. Foreign Office spokesperson Aisha Farooqi created more confusion by countering the story, saying that it was misleading.

Pakistan's own 'Dawn' trashed the Foreign Office (FO), saying: "The FO statement recapped points from the speech of Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the UN in New York Munir Akram about growing incidents of Islamophobia in India and gravity of the situation. It then went on say that 'a large number of OIC ambassadors' shared the concerns about the situation in India and supported the need for a coordinated OIC position on Islamophobia at the UN.

"The statement's assertion that 'a large number of ambassadors' supported Pakistani position implies that not all of them backed it. Furthermore, the statement skipped Maldivian objection."

A Maldivian foreign ministry statement on the meeting slam dunked Pakistan Foreign Office, saying: "Maldives cannot support any action within OIC that singles out or targets India."

Dawn also went onto offer a strong reasoning for the diplomatic fiasco, suggesting that in the normal course in the OIC meetings, participants with non-conforming views were traditionally brought around by "heavy weight" -- a reference to Saudi Arabia and Egypt -- but in this instance the Maldives persisted with its objection and there was no reach-out by any of the so-called heavyweights on the controversial remark.