EDITORIAL: What happened at Pakistan’s consulate in Frankfurt last Saturday is as surprising as it is shocking. A large number of demonstrators, according to German news outlet, DW, about 400-strong, carrying Afghan flags gathered outside the consulate. They hurled rocks at the consular office, endangering the lives of the staff inside. They also took down Pakistan’s flag and tried to burn it.
That this took place in a major European city is hard to believe. Peaceful protests are permissible, but not the nasty kind that came to pass in the present instance. The receiving state has a duty to protect the premises of a diplomatic mission and its staff, and prevent any intrusion, damage to property or hurt its dignity – as the demonstrators did by desecrating Pakistan’s national flag.
The Foreign Office in Islamabad issued a statement conveying a “strong protest” to the German government and urged it to immediately fulfil its responsibilities under the Vienna Conventions on Consular Relations by protecting the sanctity of the consular premises and the security of diplomats.
Furthermore, the FO asked the German authorities to arrest and prosecute the perpetrators, and also hold accountable those responsible for the lapses in security. The FO did not mention the nationality of the protesters since it was obvious enough from the fact that they came waving Afghan flags.
However, Federal Information Minister Atta Tarar, thoughtless as usual — in an apparent attempt to implicate the main opposition party, the PTI — said at a presser that the National Database and Registration Authority had been directed to analyse footage of the incident to ascertain whether any Pakistanis were involved in it.
As for the vital question why would the Afghans attack Pakistan’s diplomatic office and desecrate its flag — a symbol of sovereignty and national pride — one view is that it’s anger over mass deportation of unregistered Afghans. But it was a while ago, i.e., October last, when that drive was carried out under the controversial ‘Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan’. Some independent well-informed observers, nevertheless, insist that what inflamed the protesters was the murder earlier this month of Gilaman Wazir, a poet and activist of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement, in Islamabad by unknown assailants. It is worth noting that his coffin was draped in the Afghan flag.
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif did not help the matters as he lashed out at the Afghan refugees, saying Pakistan needed to rethink hospitality shown to Afghan nationals. Besides being unfair to victims of two wars imposed by foreign powers plus a protracted internecine conflict, expulsion of even registered refugees will only add fuel to the fire. Cooler heads must prevail, easing tensions with the Kabul government and the Afghan people wherever they may be.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024