Monday, June 28, 2021
Top adviser to Pakistan’s prime minister held secret meeting in Israel
Sayed Zulfikar Bukhari flew to the Jewish state where he met with a number of senior officials along with the then Chief of Mossad Yossi Cohen.A senior adviser to the Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has held a secret meeting in Israel with several officials as well as the head of Mossad.Sayed Zulfikar Bukhari flew to Israel last November where he met with a number of senior officials along with the then Chief of Mossad Yossi Cohen, it can be revealed. A source close to Bukhari confirmed to Jewish News that a “productive” meeting between the pair went ahead. It is understood that the talks went ahead after pressure was put on Pakistan by the United Arab Emirates. Reports in Israel on Monday suggested Bukhari had used a British passport to fly from London to Tel Aviv to attend the talks. At the meeting a message was passed to Israel from Prime Minister Khan himself. The two countries are expected to take part in a naval exercise in the Black Sea, along with Egypt, UAE, Tunisia , Morocco and Turkey, with the US navy also involved. Pakistan has not yet recognised Israel as an official country. After reports of the meeting emerged on Monday, the senior Pakistani official made a public claim that he “didn’t go to Israel” in a tweet. Zulfi Bukhari added:” Funny bit is Pakistani paper says I went to Israel based on ‘Israeli news source’ and Israeli paper says I went to Israel based on a ‘Pakistani source’ -wonder who this imaginative Pakistani source is. “Apparently, I’m the only one who was kept out of the loop.” But a report in Israel Hayom said Buhari met with foreign ministry officials as well as Mossad Director Yossi Cohen in Tel Aviv in order to pass on messages from Khan and army Chief of Staff Qamar Javed Bajwa. Another source confirmed to Jewish News that the meeting in Israel had been the subject of further discussion in Pakistan after it took place. In an interview with a Turkish television station earlier this year PM Khan said there are two reasons why Pakistan cannot recognize Israel. “The situation in Kashmir is exactly the same situation in Palestine. If we recognize Israel’s takeover of Palestine territories, then we also have to recognize what India has done in Kashmir, so we completely lose moral standing,” he said. In May Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi was accused of propagating antisemitic tropes during an interview with CNN. During a segment on Israel-Palestine conflict, Qureshi told CNN anchor Bianna Golodryga, who is Jewish herself, that Israel “controls the media” and has “deep pockets”. “Israel is losing out,” Qureshi said. “They’re losing the media war, despite their connections…The tide is turning,” he added.When Golodryga asked him to clarify what he meant, Qureshi responded that the country had “deep pockets”.
Investigation demanded on the issue who was aboard airplane to Israel, Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari
When asked about the situation in the Sindh assembly, Chairman Bilawal said that just like there are non-serious people in Islamabad, they are also there in the Sindh assembly, who still think that they are on containers. The opposition members in the Sindh assembly should be asked why they not moved a single cut motion during the budget debate. You must have seen the seriousness of the PPP members in the National assembly who presented cut motions. We hope that the speaker Sindh assembly maintains the dignity there. Such actions should have not been done in the assembly where the Pakistan resolution was passed. I hope that the speaker will take serious action against everyone who is involved in such matters.
Regarding lending airbases to the United States, he said that we do not take Imran Khan’s statements seriously because he has taken a U-turn on every stance since coming into politics. We will be briefed about the issue in a meeting of national security committee tomorrow.
About the Gujjar nullah issue, he said that we respect the decisions of the Supreme Court in regards to the population living there. This is a humanitarian disaster because it affects 96000 people, you are forcibly displacing these people during a pandemic without resettling them or providing them with shelter, only with a negligible amount as compensation. The United Nations in turn has alarmed us that this is a grave breach of human rights. We also want the Gujjar nullah to be clean and there are other nullahs that should be paid attention as well. No one lives on a nullah happily, these people are there out of sheer need. If we want the nullah to be cleared, this is surely possible but it needs to follow a proper procedure and the right timeframe, during which we can ensure that the people can be provided with houses. Unfortunately, this is not happening, after the UN report had come, I had called upon the Sindh government and the Sindh cabinet to take notice of the United Nations’ human rights appeal for the people living in Gujjar nullah Karachi. The cabinet and parliament should also discuss this and we should approach the court for it to review its decision. We respect the court and do not wish to contempt it, but we are appealing to it to not forcibly displace Karachi’s poor population. The people being displaced are those with electricity and gas connections, they shouldn’t have to provide a justification for their rights and houses to not be taken away.
Responding to a question about the Kashmir election campaign, Chairman Bilawal said that he is grateful to the population of Gilgit Baltistan who despite the obvious rigging and intervention, voted for and supported PPP. Everyone saw how that seat was snatched from us, but despite that PPP is a democratic party and does not leave space for anyone to carry on with their anti-democratic practices which we know they do. However, PPP will not leave any space for this to take place freely, we know that the state is using its resources but PPP will still run its campaign democratically and if the ones in government are trying to win with their power, influence, and money, we have Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s Peoples Party and we know that the people of Kashmir will support us.
In a Twitter message, Chairman Bilawal said that he had demanded on the floor of the house that the Parliament be briefed on the Afghanistan situation by the relevant departments and institutions. We welcome Speaker’s decision and will participate in NSC committee meeting on the topic.
https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/25185/