Zulfi denies visiting Israel, meeting govt officials

ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Ministry Overseas Pakistanis & HRD Sayd Zulfiqar Abbas Bukhari denied Monday that he had secretly visited Israel for meetings with senior government officials, following a report in Israel Hayom daily that a Pakistani envoy had visited Israel last November.

"DIDNOT go to Israel. Funny bit is Pakistani paper says I went to Israel based on "Israeli news source" & 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," Zulfi Bukhari tweeted.

According to the Israel Hayom report, Zulfi Bukhari flew to Israel from Islamabad via London. He was said to have met with foreign ministry officials as well as Mossad Director Yossi Cohen in Tel Aviv in order to pass on messages from Imran Khan and Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa.

According to the report, based "on a source in Islamabad", the visit came following “heavy pressure” from the United Arab Emirates.

Meanwhile, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari demanded investigation into issue who was aboard airplane to Israel. “Investigation should be made why an airplane in November went to Israel from Pakistan and stayed there for 10 hours. We are demanding if this airplane took off from another country, it should also be investigated,” he said this while responding to a question about Imran Khan’s close friend visiting Israel in a press talk with the media at the Parliament House Monday.

Bilawal said the news outlets of Israel after getting censored from Israel’s defence department, this information should come before the nation now as we have concerns regarding what is done in the darkness of the night. “The government should bring the details and manifest of the flight and if the flight route which was mentioned and if an airplane did not pick up Zulfi Bukhari then who did it pick up,” he added.

He said the news outlets there reported that Prime Minister Imran Khan’s close friend and special assistant was the one aboard the airplane, for whom Imran had arranged for an NRO during the elections. “This information should come before the nation now,” he added. He said the PPP was demanding the flight details; flight path was reported in social media and media so the government should provide the details. He said he had also information of adviser on national security that come from SSIP and we have serious concerns on it also. Asked about the PPP policy on Israel if he assumes the office of prime minister, Bilawal said the PPP policy on Palestine and Kashmir is clear as they have a very strong relation with Palestine and the decision about Palestine will be taken by Palestinians as the PPP also desired that decision on Kashmir should be taken by the people of Kashmir.

To a question regarding the meeting of Parliamentary Committee on National Security, Bilawal said he welcomed the decision of convening the meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security and said 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 I will participate in NSC Committee meeting on the topic,” he added.

Regarding lending airbases to United States, Bilawal said we do not take Imran Khan’s statements seriously because he has taken a U-turn on every stance since coming into politics.

When asked about the situation in the Sindh Assembly, Bilawal said that just like there are cartoons in Islamabad, they are also there in the Sindh Assembly, who still think that they are on containers. He said 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 proving that they had read the budget,” he added.

To a question about the Gujjar Nullah issue, Bilawal said the PPP respects the decisions of the Supreme Court regarding the people living there. “This is a humanitarian disaster because it affects 96,000 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,” he added.

He said 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 drains that should be paid attention as well,” he added.

He said 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,” he further added.

Unfortunately, he said this is not happening, after the UN report had come, he had called upon the Sindh government and the provincial cabinet to take notice of the United Nations’ human rights appeal for the people living alongside Gujjar Nullah in Karachi.

PPP chairman said 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,” he said. He said 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 a question about the AJK election campaign, he said he is grateful to the population of Gilgit-Baltistan who despite the obvious rigging and intervention, voted for the 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,” he added.

However, he said the PPP will not leave any space for this to take place freely, we know that the state is using its resources but the PPP will still run its campaign democratically. To another question regarding former president Asif Ali Zardari meetings in Lahore, Bilawal said Zardari’s trip to Lahore was already scheduled and if some people came to inquire about his health, we are thankful to them. To a question about his visit to the US to meet President Biden, he laughed and said he has no plans to meet him.