Daily Times

Pakistan on Friday shut down its consulate in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad citing Nangarhar Governor Hayatullah Hayat’s “undue intervention” in the affairs of the Pakistani diplomatic mission, Pakistani officials said late Friday.

“The embassy wishes to inform that the Consulate General will remain closed until the security arrangements are complete to the satisfaction of the embassy,” Pakistan Deputy Ambassador Shahbaz told Daily Times from Kabul.

The embassy also requested the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan to refrain Governor Hayat from “interfering in the functioning” of the Consulate General and ensure restoration of the security of the Consulate General as it existed on August 28, 2018.

The Pakistan Embassy in Kabul said that the Nangarhar governor had interfered in the affairs of the Jalalabad consulate, which was a “complete violation of the Vienna Convention of the Consular Relations 1963.”

Pakistani consulate in Jalalabad had been facing security issues since long.

In November last year, gunmen shot dead Nayyar Iqbal Rana, assistant private secretary at the Pakistani consulate in Jalalabad, outside his residence.

In June 2017, two officials of the Jalalabad consulate were kidnapped when they were en route Torkham crossing.

In January 2016, the Jalalabad consulate came under a gun and bomb attack, leaving at least seven people dead and three others injured.

Published in Daily Times, September 1^st 2018.