Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on Thursday made an effort to establish an ‘urgent’ telephonic contact with Dubai ruler Shaikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Makhtoum, who is also prime minister of the United Arab Emirates.
According to an official letter of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a copy of which is available with Pakistan Today, reads that Prime Minister Nawaz wished to urgently speak to Shaikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Makhtoum over the telephone.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs presents its compliments to the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates in Islamabad and has the honour to inform that the prime minister wishes to urgently speak to His Excellency Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Makhtoum over the telephone,” reads the leaked diplomatic cable.
The cable said that the Embassy of Pakistan in Abu Dhabi has already contacted the UAE authorities in this regard. “However, the assistance of the esteemed embassy is solicited for the earliest confirmation of a convenient time slot to make this telephone call today. It may be noted that the call to the vice president’s office will be made from one of the following telephone numbers of the prime minister’s office in Islamabad,” the letter says.
The diplomatic cable also showed the official phone numbers. “The esteemed embassy is requested to ensure early confirmation in this regard to the foreign secretary’s office or the office of the chief of protocol. The ministry avails itself of this opportunity to renew to the esteemed embassy of the United Arab Emirates in Islamabad the assurances of its highest consideration.”
REASON: A source in the ruling party said that efforts were afoot to make a contact by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif with UAE premier to make a personal request to the Dubai ruler to facilitate the handling of the official documents collected by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) from the Emirates government.
“The document obtained by JIT reflected the prime minister had been managing Capital FZE – a UAE based company – which was not disclosed anywhere in the PM’s tax returns or documents submitted to the election authorities. Since only this document can lead to the prime minister’s disqualification, so efforts are afoot to manage this document,” the official said.
Asked whether the contact had been made, the source said that he only knew about the efforts being made in this regard.
