May 20, 2003	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 17, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, May 19: The confusion created over the appointment of Pakistan’s high commissioner to India after Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali’s interview with the Doordarshan still persists.

It all began with Mr Jamali’s interview with Indian state-run Doordarshan Television network on Saturday. The prime minister disclosed that he had just approved the name of Pakistani high commissioner to New Delhi. When pressed by the interviewer to give the name of the nominee, the Prime Minister told him it was Riaz Mohammad Khan.

PTV cameras also recorded the interview given to Doordarshan. After the interview was over, Information Secretary Anwer Mehmood asked the interviewer, Saeed Naqvi, if he could run the interview. However, Mr Naqvi told him that his television network would not run the interview until Monday night and therefore PTV should not telecast it till then.

Meanwhile, the information secretary consulted the Foreign Office (FO) to check if PTV should run the news about the approval of Pakistan’s high commissioner as disclosed by the prime minister during his interview.

The FO advised him against it, pointing to the protocol that had to be observed in such matters. Also, by that time the FO had no indication that a decision had been taken at the highest level.

However, contrary to the FO advice the PTV went ahead and made the announcement about the nomination of the high commissioner in its evening news bulletin, quoting Mr Jamali’s interview with Doordarshan.

It is not known who gave the green light for Pakistan Television to make the announcement.

On learning that the PTV had telecast the news about Riaz Mohammad Khan’s nomination, the FO contacted the Prime Minister’s Secretariat for its verification.

Interestingly, the prime minister’s key aides including his principal secretary, Naseeruddin Ahmed, told the FO that Mr Jamali, to that time, had not taken a final decision on the appointment of the high commissioner.

In view of the conflicting statements emanating from the Information Ministry and the PM’s Secretariat, the acting foreign secretary on Sunday night contacted Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar in a European capital to seek his counsel on the matter.

Subsequently the FO issued a clarification saying that the prime minister had not been quoted accurately and that he had not made a final decision. The statement was made past midnight.

On Monday afternoon FO Spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan echoed the same line at the weekly news briefing. “The prime minister has not been quoted accurately, at this moment no decision has been made,” he categorically stated.

Mr Khan faced a volley of questions on the controversy that seemed to be a classic case of the lack of coordination between the relevant government ministries.

The spokesman was not ready to pin responsibility of the confusion on anyone. “I’ll have to check,” he said when asked if he would put the responsibility on the PTV, Doordarshan, Foreign Office or the prime minister.

Till Monday evening the FO had not received any communication from the PM’s Secretariat on the decision regarding the appointment of high commissioner to India, Dawn learnt through senior officials.

“The question of seeking the agreement does not arise till we have been conveyed the approved name by the PM’s Secretariat,” said a senior FO staffer. “Pakistan would seek a formal agreement through the diplomatic channels, which means it has to go through the Foreign Office,” he added.

Our correspondent from New Delhi adds: The text of the interview aired by Doordarshan on Monday revealed that Mr Jamali was reminded in the interview that India had already posted Mr Shiv Shankar Menon, “one of our best officers in the foreign ministry” to Islamabad. What about Pakistan?

Mr Jamali responded by saying that Pakistan would not be far behind and that it would be sending a fine officer to New Delhi.

Can you name him? He was asked.

“Probably it will be Riaz Mohammed Khan, our ambassador in Beijing,” Mr Jamali said, adding: “It is just a strange coincidence that Mr Menon was your ambassador in Beijing and he has come to Pakistan and Riaz Mohammed Khan is my ambassador in Beijing and Insha Allah I’ll send him to New Delhi.”

Meanwhile, Indian official sources were quoted as saying that New Delhi had not received any name from Islamabad for consideration as the new envoy.