WASHINGTON: A spokesman for the Pakistan embassy has denied that Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, was forced by the participants of a conference to leave the function. Instead, he said, the ambassador left for a prior engagement 40 minutes after delivering his speech at a seminar organised on the occasion of the annual conference of the Association of Pakistani Physicians in North America (APPNA).

Clarifying a report published in Dawn on Monday, the spokesman said Mr Haqqani sat through the speech of Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan who spoke after him and stayed for part of the question and answer session that followed. The event is available on video and would bear out the embassy’s account, the spokesman asserted.

The spokesman admitted that Mr Haqqani had an altercation with some supporters of a religious party present in the audience as they attempted to disrupt his response to a question with shouts and slogans. According to him, the ambassador’s speech earlier was, however, heard without interruption.

The spokesman further said the ambassador’s speech was exclusively focussed on the need for building the foundations of Pakistani democracy, and there was nothing in his remarks that could be construed as provocative. “It was in this context that the ambassador said those who do not wish to listen to diverse points of view should not invite speakers with different opinions and once different speakers have been invited the audience should have the courtesy to listen to them.”

According to the statement, when one of the protesters shouted: “We do not accept you as ambassador”, Mr Haqqani jokingly said: “You won’t say that when you’re at the embassy to renew your passport.” It is incorrect to say that all hell broke loose after that.

The spokesman further said the organisers from the podium apologised to the ambassador for the heckling, before he left at the time announced at the beginning of the event.