FO's clarification.

THE Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday clarified that the government has nothing to do with the visit of a Pakistani delegation to Israel clarifying that the visit was organized by a foreign non-governmental organization (NGO) which is not based in Pakistan.

A day earlier, a delegation of Pakistanis met Israeli Foreign Ministry officials in Jerusalem. It also included a former government minister.

The visit was essentially a private one and its sponsors claim it was aimed at promoting inter-faith harmony which is, of course, need of the hour in view of Islamophobic trends around the world, especially in the West.

But it raised eye-brows in the backdrop of reports of similar visits in the past including the one by Zulfi Bokhari, Advisor to the then Prime Minister Imran Khan in November last to meet Mossad chief, as claimed by an Israeli newspaper and denied by the former Advisor.

A Pakistani journalist also visited the Jewish State as part of a delegation and this caused him his job in the state-owned Pakistan Television.

There is no reason to contest the clarification issued by the Foreign Office but media reports suggest track-two type diplomacy to prepare grounds for initiation of some sort of relationship with Israel as some prominent television talkers...