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Khan, who has beforehand served because the “president” of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) till August final yr, was nominated as Pakistan’s ambassador to the US in November.
Republican Congressman Scott Perry, in a letter to President Biden final week, expressed “grave concern” in regards to the nomination of Khan as Pakistan’s ambassador to the USA.
“(Pakistan Prime Minister) Imran Khan’s nomination of a bona fide terrorist sympathiser working to undermine our pursuits within the area, in addition to the safety of our Indian allies, can solely be described as a panoramic lack of judgment at greatest, and an illustration of Islamabad’s unmitigated contempt for the USA at worst,” he wrote.
“Whereas I’m inspired that the State Division has reportedly positioned a pause on approving Masood Khan as the brand new ambassador from Pakistan, a pause is just not sufficient.
“I urge you to reject any diplomatic credentials offered to you by Masood Khan and reject any effort by the Authorities of Pakistan to put in this jihadist as Pakistan’s Ambassador to the USA,” stated the Member of Congress tenth District, Pennsylvania.
In Islamabad, the Daybreak newspaper reported that the US State Division has been taking “unusually lengthy” to simply accept the nomination of Khan and the “delay has triggered an impression of a pause within the course of”.
The request for agrément for Masood Khan had been despatched to the State Division within the second week of November, the report quoted a Pakistani diplomat as saying.
The agrément is the approval of a delegated diplomat by the receiving state.
Usually, the State Division took 4 to 6 weeks to situation agrément for Pakistani ambassadors previously, in keeping with the report, including that “this time they’re taking unusually lengthy”.
In his letter, US Congressman Perry additional stated that the ambassador-designate has praised each terrorists and overseas terrorist organisations, together with Hizbul Mujahideen, in stark and unsetting phrases.
“He has inspired younger males to emulate jihadists like Burhan Wani, a former commander of Hizbul Mujahideen who devoted his life to a holy warfare towards India,” Perry stated.
He stated that in 2017, Khan lashed out on the US for designating the chief of Hizbul Mujahideen for sanctions, calling these sanctions “unjustifiable”.
Perry additional stated {that a} litany of examples accompanies “Khan’s perverse attachment to Islamic terrorism, which makes it exceedingly apparent that Pakistan has embraced its id as a brilliant terrorist state”.
“We all know, as an illustration, that the ambassador-designate is a supporter of the terrorist teams Jamaat-e-Islami, a gaggle that assisted in committing genocide within the early Nineteen Seventies, in addition to Serving to Hand for Aid and Improvement, a gaggle that had no qualms establishing a partnership with the overseas terrorist organisation answerable for the brutal homicide of 166 individuals through the 2008 Mumbai terror assaults (Lashkar-e-Taiba),” Perry stated.
The Daybreak newspaper reported that Khan had beforehand served as Pakistan’s everlasting consultant to the UN in Geneva and New York, and as ambassador to China.
He was to interchange the outgoing ambassador of Pakistan in Washington, Asad Majeed Khan.
The delay has occurred at a time when ties between the 2 allies have turned more and more frosty as a result of geo-political surroundings. The US curiosity in Pakistan has waned after it pulled out of Afghanistan.
Furthermore, Washington seems at ties with Pakistan from the prism of its strategic competitors with China, though Islamabad has repeatedly stated that it was not a part of any camp politics.
Folks within the Overseas Workplace (FO) imagine that the delay was due to Khan’s final place because the “president” of PoK.
FO Spokesman Asim Iftikhar didn’t reply to a question despatched to him on this situation, the report stated.
An American diplomat, who has beforehand labored in Pakistan and is at the moment in Washington, performed down the state of affairs as presumably a procedural matter, saying the delay was in all probability as a result of State Division working on most telework due to Omicron.
Furthermore, he stated, Khan’s credentials had been submitted on the cusp of the vacation season which was the slowest interval of all the yr.
The US had on the finish of October nominated Donald Blome as the brand new envoy to Pakistan. Islamabad has already issued his agrément, in keeping with the report.
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