Pakistan on Thursday defended its regional diplomacy, rejected allegations by Amnesty International over cross-border strikes in Afghanistan, and reaffirmed its commitment to dialogue in the Middle East while maintaining that it would respond decisively to any threat against its national interests.
Addressing the weekly media briefing, Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said Pakistan remained actively engaged in diplomatic efforts to promote peace and dialogue, pointing to the recent visit of Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni. During the visit, Momeni met Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and other senior officials.
Andrabi said the visit reflected close coordination between the two neighbouring countries on regional developments. While declining to comment on reports of a proposed temporary ceasefire between Iran and the United States, he said Pakistan would neither confirm nor deny confidential diplomatic communications. “The best template to revert to the peace process remains the Islamabad MoU and the Joint Statement between Pakistan and Qatar,” he said, adding that Islamabad remained hopeful despite continued military escalation.
Responding to the European Union’s latest GSP Plus monitoring report, Andrabi welcomed the acknowledgement of Pakistan’s legislative progress and continued compliance with the 27 international conventions underpinning the trade scheme. However, he expressed disappointment over what he described as an unbalanced assessment, saying the report understated the breadth of reforms undertaken since Pakistan joined the GSP Plus framework in 2014 while placing disproportionate emphasis on areas where progress remained limited. He said GSP Plus remained central to Pakistan’s economic partnership with the EU, supporting exports, employment, women’s economic participation and poverty reduction.
The spokesperson also strongly rejected Amnesty International’s report alleging civilian casualties from Pakistani strikes inside Afghanistan, saying the allegations lacked credible evidence. He accused the Afghan Taliban of providing a permissive environment for terrorist organisations including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), arguing that Pakistan’s military action had been undertaken solely in self-defence and targeted only terrorist infrastructure. He urged the international community to hold the Taliban accountable for preventing Afghan territory from being used for cross-border terrorism.
On maritime security, Andrabi reiterated that any attack on Pakistani-flagged or commercial vessels would be treated as an attack on Pakistan and met with a swift response under the country’s right to self-defence. He also reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to its bilateral defence agreements with Saudi Arabia while declining to comment on operational military deployments in the Red Sea.
Defending the Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan, Andrabi said the process remained open-ended and that Pakistan had facilitated the relocation of more than 89,000 Afghan nationals to third countries since 2021. He maintained that foreign nationals without valid travel documents remained liable for deportation, while stressing that humanitarian exemptions had been granted to more than 16,000 vulnerable individuals and that a complaint mechanism existed to address cases of harassment.
Moreover, Islamabad expressed “disappointment” with the European Union’s (EU) recent report that pointed out issues in Pakistan’s compliance with its commitments under the Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+).
Andrabi appreciated the report’s “acknowledgement of Pakistan’s legislative progress” and its continued compliance with 27 international conventions under the GSP+.
“Nevertheless, I would be remiss if I do not express disappointment with the assessment, with the report’s overall narrative which does not present sufficiently balanced pictures of Pakistan’s performance,” Andrabi added.
He said the EU report “understates the breadth of reforms undertaken since Pakistan joined GSP+ in 2014” and “places disproportionate emphasis on the lower-than-desired progress in a few areas”.
At the same time, the FO spokesman affirmed that GSP+ remained “central to Pakistan’s economic relationship with the EU, supporting exports, employment, women’s economic participation, poverty reduction and broader economic development”.
He observed that GSP+ was a “mutually beneficial arrangement in that aspect”.