Shahbaz Sharif walks away without answering questions on Hafiz Saeed at UNGA
Pakistan PM Shahbaz Sharif twice avoided journalists' questions on Hafiz Saeed at the UN, a day after India rebuked Pakistan at the UNHRC in Geneva.
The 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) is underway in New York, with major global issues under discussion. During the high-level meeting on Thursday, an incident took place whose video went viral on social media. As Pakistan Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif was entering the UN headquarters, journalists present asked him directly when Pakistan would stop giving shelter to terrorists. Sharif did not respond to the question and walked quickly into the building without answering.
The matter did not end there. When Sharif came out after the General Assembly proceedings, journalists surrounded him again and asked when Pakistan would prosecute and take action against Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed. On hearing Hafiz Saeed's name again, Sharif lowered his head, gave no answer and left. Video of the entire episode showed journalists asking, as he came out of the UN headquarters, when he would prosecute Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed, and Sharif remaining silent.
A day before this incident, India had given Pakistan a strong response at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva. Indian diplomat Kshitij Tyagi, exercising the Right of Reply, hit back at Pakistan's anti-India agenda. Tyagi said Pakistan should stop promoting cross-border terrorism and misusing international platforms, and should focus on its debt-ridden and declining economy instead of making anti-India statements.
Kshitij Tyagi also said Pakistan's priorities were completely wrong. He said conditions inside Pakistan were extremely poor, with people troubled by inflation and shortages of food items, while the government was spending its energy on anti-India propaganda. According to Tyagi, giving state protection to terrorists and misusing international funds have become habits for Pakistan, which is why the country finds itself isolated in the world today.
The Indian diplomat also raised, at the international forum, the issue of atrocities and repression committed against civilians by the military in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). He said basic rights of people in PoK were being taken away and that the Pakistani administration used violence against those who protested there. Tyagi also said that essential rations, petrol and diesel, medicines and electricity were deliberately being withheld from the local population there.
