Lack of coordination and absence of a clear governmental policy vis-à-vis Azad Jammu and Kashmir cost the government heavily on Tuesday, as the Foreign Ministry restrained AJK Prime Minister Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan from attending the OIC moot. However, the prime minister offered his own plane to carry his Kashmiri counterpart to the moot later in the day. Khan was stopped at Benazir Bhutto International Airport by the Foreign Office, a few minutes prior to his visit to Kazakhstan for attending the OIC summit.
He was asked by the Foreign Office not to attend the summit and Khan subsequently missed his scheduled flight PK 761. “It is essential for me to take part in meeting as I was invited by the OIC secretary general to represent Kashmir,” he told reporters at the airport. But taking notice of the Foreign Office’s ‘blunder’ later in the day, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani offered his official plane to Khan to fly him to Kazakhstan.
Gilani also directed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the embassy of Pakistan in Kazakhstan to ensure smooth arrangements for Khan’s participation in the OIC Foreign Ministers’ Conference. He also directed the ambassador of Pakistan to Kazakhstan to arrange Khan’s meetings with the foreign ministers concerned.
