ISLAMABAD, Feb 8: Pakistan on Saturday condemned the Indian government decision to declare its acting deputy high commissioner in New Delhi Jalil Abbas Jilani persona non grata on trumped-up charges and angrily warned that such measures had made the relations between the two countries “extremely bad” which might get even worse.

A statement read out by foreign office spokesman Aziz Ahmad Khan at a news conference said the government of Pakistan strongly condemned the Indian government decision to declare Mr Jilani and four other officials of the Pakistan high commission personae non grata on trumped-up charges.

“Earlier the (Indian) government had resorted to highly provocative, irresponsible and shameful act of naming Mr Jilani in an FIR lodged against two representatives of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, who were framed by the Indian intelligence operatives,” it said.

The statement said that Habibur Rahman, one of the four officials declared personae non grata, was currently in Saudi Arabia to perform Haj and added that this exposed the hollowness of the Indian claim.

In its eagerness to replicate “Gujarat experiment” in the forthcoming elections in India, the statement said, the BJP government was engaged in a dirty game of escalating tension with Pakistan. It resorted to the reprehensible practice of harassing and expelling officials of the Pakistan high commission in New Delhi on fabricated charges.

“In December last year, the Indian intelligence operatives started aggressive chasing of the official vehicle of the Pakistan acting high commissioner and his harassment. The government of Pakistan lodged a protest with the government of India on Jan 7. However, harassment of the acting high commissioner continued unabated. On Jan 22, the Indian government resorted to the extreme measure of expelling four officials of the high commission of Pakistan in New Delhi,” the statement recalled.

It enumerated several incidents of harassment and aggressive chasing of the defence adviser and his family members while they were shopping in New Delhi against which the high commission had lodged protests with the government of India. But the harassment continued with impunity flouting the obligations undertaken by India under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the Bilateral Code of Conduct of 1992 to ensure the safety and the privileges of the officials of the Pakistan high commission.

The spokesman said that acting on the principle of reciprocity, the Pakistan foreign ministry summoned acting high commissioner of India Sudhir Vyas on Saturday and asked him and four officials of the Indian mission to leave Pakistan within 48 hours. However, the families of the expelled diplomat and the four officials have been permitted seven days to wind up and leave the country in accordance with the 1992 bilateral code of conduct for diplomatic missions.

Answering questions, the spokesman said Pakistan had always tried to act with restraint and maturity in dealing with the Indian military deployment for about a year in 2002 and the diplomatic measures adopted by Delhi. But most of the time, he added, Islamabad was forced to take defensive measures such as at the time of deployment of Indian forces and diplomatic transgressions.

Asked to spell out the status of relations between Delhi and Islamabad, the spokesman said: “The state of relations is extremely bad and it is bad because of the actions India has been taking and it appears that they are intent and interested that the atmosphere remains vitiated and tense and in fact if anything it gets even worse”.

He insisted that inter-state relations could be maintained through diplomatic means, through negotiations and through peaceful means, and not through belligerence, threat, force or making baseless allegations and other actions which vitiated the atmosphere.

Asked about the possibility of a meeting between President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee during the Non-Aligned Movement conference being held at Kuala Lumpur later this month, the spokesman said while Pakistan had been ready for such a meeting, it was apparent that India had been recalcitrant and diffident in responding to Pakistan’s repeated overtures for dialogue.

All issues whether they related to the Most Favoured Nation treatment or other trade and commercial issues could also be decided only through comprehensive dialogue which India had avoided and evaded all along, said the spokesman in reply to another question.

He said it was again India which had declined to accept Pakistan’s suggestions to strengthen the decades old UN mechanism along the Line of Control to monitor and report whether the Indian allegations of so-called cross-border terrorism were true or a mere propaganda against Pakistan.

He said that until a replacement of Mr Jilani was decided the mission would be headed by consular Ibne Abbas.