Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Indian authorities treat Pakistani high commissioner to New Delhi, Abdul Basit, as a ‘persona-non-grata’ and have not allowed him once to meet Indian external affairs minister or any other high profile dignitary during his tenure so far. Mr Basit was appointed the county’s high commissioner in New Delhi, in February 2014. Earlier, he served as Pakistan’s ambassador to Germany.

Foreign Office (FO) sources told Daily Times that Indian external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj did not entertain repeated requests of Mr Basit for formal meetings. “Given his hawkish personality and unnecessary aggression, none of the policy makers in India feel like meeting him. He doesn’t enjoy personal rapport with any important Indian official,” sources said. The job of high commissioner in New Delhi is regarded one of the most important diplomatic assignments given the intricate nature of Pak-India relations.

The most brilliant career diplomats are normally posted in New Delhi.

Previously, Pakistan had envoys like Jehangir Ashraf Qazi, Salman Bashir, Riaz Khokhar, Aziz A Khan, etc who were considered people of great calibre and diplomatic skills. Sources said the Indian authorities have verbally and informally appealed to Pakistan at several occasions to replace Mr Basit with someone else. It was learnt that foreign secretary Aizaz Chaudhry had raised the matter with the high commissioner and advised him to keep his cool during tough situations. The foreign secretary wanted the high commissioner to dispel the impression that he was a hawk and always would be no matter whatever the circumstances between the two neighbouring countries. Sources said the rigid stance of the high commissioner brought him at loggers head with the foreign secretary at several occasions.

The FO spokesperson, Nafees Zakria, denied that there were differences between Mr Chaudhry and Mr Basit. He said the foreign secretary enjoys good working relations with the high commissioner. He, however, refused to comment on the fact that Mr Basit never called on the Indian external affairs minister or any other high profile Indian official in the Modi administration.

“Whenever we want to issue a démarche, we prefer not to summon the (Pakistani) high commission to the (external affairs) ministry. We just don’t feel comfortable with him,” an Indian official not requesting not to be named said. India had cancelled secretary level dialogue with Pakistan in 2014, after Ambassador Abdul Basit met with All Parties Huriyat Conference leader Shabir Shah just days before the dialogue.

The Twitter timeline of Ambassador Basit shows trips to Nagpur, Chandigarh, Simla and other parts of India on invitations of various institutes. He posted his pictures of intermingling with Indian Muslims during Ramazan and Eid. He also tweeted about his meeting with the chief minister of Bihar. However, the ambassador seems to be fond of re-tweeting pictures of picturesque landscapes of Pakistan, as if his primary task is to promote the country’s tourism industry.