Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been accused of barring the Foreign Office from commenting against India and its jailed spy Kulbushan Jadhav perhaps due to his business interest by a top retired diplomat and ex-spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Tasneem Aslam, who remained spokesperson for the Foreign Office twice during her diplomatic career, claimed that the former premier Nawaz Sharif had been instructing the Foreign Office not to say anything against India and Jadhav. She made this claim during an interview with an Islamabad-based journalist and a YouTuber.
To a question by the journalist whether Sharif family was pro-India, she stated: "Yes, absolutely they're." "Perhaps they had their business interests too," she maintained. Responding to another question whether it was the Foreign Office to decide and advice the prime minister not to name India, Kulbhushan Jadhav and the Indian involvement in terrorism in Balochistan in his speeches at the international forums or it was decided in the Prime Minister's House, she stated: "...rather he used to instruct the Foreign Office not to mention [India, Kulbhushan]...yes we used to get these kinds of instructions [from Sharif]".
As far as the speech at the United Nations General Assembly is concerned, she added that the speech was drafted by the Foreign Office and Pakistan's Mission to the UN in New York jointly. "If he [Sharif] did not mention Kulbhushan in his speech to the UNGA, but he did mention about Kashmir in his speech," she said, while referring to the former premier's addresses to the UNGA in 2016.
"Otherwise, he [Sharif] did had a clear instruction [to Foreign Office] to avoid commenting against India," she further maintained. The former diplomat also referred to former primer minister Sharif's visit to India in May 2014 to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying that it has been a set precedent whenever any prime minister of Pakistan visits India he/she used to meet the Kashmir Hurriyat leaders.
"But he [Sharif] did not meet the Kashmiri leaders," she asserted. Responding to another query as to who - Nawaz Sharif or Pakistan - benefited from this policy, Aslam said: "I don't know whether he [Sharif] benefited from this policy or not, but it did not benefit Pakistan."
Khawaja Asif, senior PML-N leader and former foreign minister as well as defence minister took to the Twitter and termed the accusations against Sharif "propaganda" by his political opponents.
"Tasneem Aslam remained on top diplomatic positions and diplomacy requires to speak responsibly...Nawaz Sharif had no business interest in India. He made sincere efforts to normalize relations with India, which did not yield positive results," Asif said.
"It is a matter of record that as foreign minister and defence minister, I took a strong stance on India. No one had instructed me not to do so. With due respect, the interview may have a political angle, but it completely lacks the facts," he further stated.
In yet another tweet, Asif maintained he did not hear the name of Kulbhusham from Prime Minister Imran Khan. "From Kashmir to New Delhi and in the whole India, Muslims are facing the worst brutalities, [but] Imran Khan failed to convene the OIC summit...such a policy of 'appeasement' make the nations a laughing stock," he stated in another tweet.
Tasneem Aslam remained on senior diplomatic positions, including spokesperson for the Foreign Office twice, first during Musharraf government from 2005 to 2007 as the first woman appointed by the ministry as its spokesperson, and during PML-N tenure between 2013 and 2017. In 2016, during the PPP government, Aslam was appointed as Pakistan's ambassador to Morocco.
However, reportedly she was not happy with the diplomatic assignment at Morocco and tendered a premature resignation after few months. Later her resignation was rejected on the intervention of the Foreign Office and she rejoined as special secretary and retired in 2017.
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