ISLAMABAD – Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that his recent statement was wrongly being attributed to the Sikh community by India to create misunderstanding.
Qureshi’s remarks come after Indian Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj termed her counterpart’s “googly” remarks as derogatory towards Sikhs.
https://twitter.com/SushmaSwaraj/status/1068910061550882816
Rejecting the impression, the Pakistan foreign minister replied: “Dragging my comment towards “Sikh sentiments” is a deliberate attempt to misrepresent & mislead”.
https://twitter.com/SMQureshiPTI/status/1069173106273591296
“What I said was strict with reference to bilateral interaction with the Indian Govt. We have deep respect for Sikh sentiments & no amount of distortions or controversies would change it,” read the tweet.
In another tweet, the foreign minister asserted: “In deference to the long-standing desires of our Sikh brethren, we decided to open the Kartarpur Corridor. We have taken this historic initiative in good faith and will carry it forward in good faith”.
https://twitter.com/SMQureshiPTI/status/1069173319436521472
FM’s Statement
Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s statement at a function on Thursday claiming that Khan had “bowled a googly” queered Pakistan PM Imran Khan’s peace pitch. At Pakistan’s invitation, Indian ministers had traveled to Islamabad for the Kartarpur ground-breaking ceremony.
“The world watched, Pakistan watched, that PM Imran Khan bowled a googly at Kartarpur. As a result of the googly, India, that had refused to engage with Pakistan, had to send two ministers to Pakistan to engage. We are happy they came, as ours is a message of peace,” Qureshi had told an audience of lawmakers and ruling party supporters at a function to mark 100 days of the Khan government.
Though only hours earlier, Qureshi, while addressing a group of Indian journalists invited to Pakistan to cover the Kartarpur ceremony, had said just the opposite: “Let me clarify, the Kartarpur gesture, believe me, had no googly hidden in it.”
Sushma Swaraj Urges PM Imran For Action
Sushma Swaraj on Saturday urged Prime Minister Imran Khan to must clarify Qureshi’s recent ‘googly’ remarks.
Sambit Patra, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson, had also lambasted Pakistan government over Qureshi’s “derogatory remarks”. He said the apparent ‘googly’ played by Pakistan on Kartarpur Corridor has exposed the PM Imran Khan-led Pakistani government. “The usage of words like googly has exposed Pakistan.
Pakistan’s Response
The Pakistan Foreign Office released a statement saying the Kartarpur Corridor initiative was taken solely to fulfill the longstanding wishes of “our Sikh brethren” and criticised the “negative propaganda campaign” against the historic move.
“We are deeply dismayed at the relentless negative propaganda campaign being waged by a section of the Indian media against Pakistan on the ‘Kartarpur Corridor’ Initiative,” the Foreign Office said in a statement.
