A six-member Qatari delegation paid a visit to Pakistan on Wednesday in the backdrop of a Middle Eastern diplomatic crisis after Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt severed ties with Doha, government sources told DawnNews. The delegation has since departed the country, sources said.
The Foreign Office (FO), however, officially denied having any knowledge of the visit.
The six-member delegation, headed by businessman Abdulhadi Mana Al Hajri, had arrived in Lahore on a chartered flight and reportedly met Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.
The delegation was reported to have relayed a message from the Qatari Emir asking Pakistan to play a positive role in resolving the diplomatic crisis engulfing the Middle East.
After a few hours in Lahore, the delegation then flew on to Islamabad, sources said.
The FO, in its weekly press briefing today, stressed the need for unity among Muslim countries and told reporters that the government wishes to see the crisis resolved in the best possible manner.
Meanwhile, in Kazakhstan, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is currently attending a two-day meeting of the Heads of State Council of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, was reported by Geo News to have said that Pakistan would do "all it can" to help resolve the crisis and called on the Muslim world to play a role in ending hostilities.
