Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s former ambassador to United States Abida Hussain on Saturday said Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi’s recent visit ended in a fiasco.

Talking to Daily Times, she regretted that Fatemi failed to hold a single meeting with any senior official of the upcoming Trump administration.

Abida, who remained Pakistan’s ambassador to the US from November 1991 to March 1993, said that Fatemi’s visit was premature and it was better that he visited Washington once US President-elect Donald Trump assumed his office.

“It was failure of Pakistan’s current Ambassador to US, Dr Maleeha Lodhi. She must have informed the Foreign Office that meeting with in waiting administration will not take place,” she said.

In a weekly media briefing on Thursday when Foreign Office spokesman Nafees Zakaria’s attention was drawn to Fatemi’s visit in which he failed to meet a single member of the upcoming US administration, Zakaria said the special assistant had a busy schedule and an extensive range of interactions in Washington and New York so far he met Susan Rice, the US national security advisor and Tony Blinken, deputy secretary of state. The spokesman had also said Fatemi also met Stephen Hadley, former national security advisor to Bush and Sajid Tarar, founder of the American Muslims for Trump. Fatemi also met Senator John McCain, chairman Senate Armed Services Committee, Bob Corker, chairman Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Congressman Eliot Engel.

“I am not aware of any such proposal that the prime minister intends to attend President-elect Donald Trump’s oath taking ceremony,” the spokesman had said in the briefing.

Speaking to media in Washington, Fatemi termed his visit successful and said that the visit would enhance the understanding between the two countries. He said that he held productive meetings with influential Republicans and Democrats but meeting senior Trump administration officials was not appropriate at this time.