06 March 2005	Sunday	24 Muharram 1426

DHAKA, March 5: Bangladesh on Saturday denied a press report that it had requested Pakistan to withdraw its High Commissioner in Dhaka Manzar Shafiq.

"News relating to Bangladesh's request to withdraw the high commissioner published in a section of newspapers is totally speculative and baseless," the director-general of the external publicity of BD's foreign ministry, Zahirul Haque, told reporters. "We have never ever requested Pakistan to withdraw their high commissioner from Bangladesh."

Asked to comment on Pakistan's decision to withdraw its high commissioner, Mr Haque said: "It is Pakistan's own and an administrative affair. It is their will that whom they will send or whom they will take back."

The official also denied a report that Bangladesh had refused to accept a defence adviser in Pakistan's High Commission. "This is also totally baseless," he said.

A section of the local media had claimed that Bangladesh was unhappy over Mr Shafiq's hobnobbing with the Indian high commissioner in Dhaka, and some adverse comment he had allegedly made against Bangladesh in the diplomatic circle.