RAWALPINDI: A spokesman of the Foreign Office here today [July 20] refuted the Indian Government’s charge that a clerk of the Pakistan High Commission in New-Delhi, who has been asked by India to leave the country within 48 hours, was carrying out espionage activities.

He said the clerk was held up by the Indian Police on July 16. He was kept under custody for a couple of hours and subjected to violence.

The Pakistan High Commission lodged a protest immediately and in reply it was said by the Indian Government that he was engaged in espionage activities. The Indian Government denied that he was beaten by the police and alleged that he was injured in a scuffle, the spokesman said.

The clerk was due to leave Delhi sometime today, he added.

Asked by newsmen to comment on the recent stepping up of an anti-Pakistan campaign by the Indian Press and radio and reports of Indian troop movements on Pakistan borders, he said the whole situation was under consideration of the Pakistan Government. — Correspondent

[Meanwhile, as reported by a correspondent in Washington,] in a belated bid to salvage some prestige and influence in the Arab world, the United States is expected to resume limited economic and military assistance to some Arab countries, notably Jordan and Saudi Arabia. This was clear from Secretary of State Dean Rusk’s comments at a Press conference yesterday [July 19]. At the same time, of course, the US would give arms to Israel.

Mr Rusk raised the bogey of Soviet arms shipments to UAR, Syria and Algeria to move Ameri­can military hardware to Israel and some Arab states. But observers here believe that the US, dismayed at the shattered American image in the Arab world, wants to pick up some of the pieces.

However, few expect that Washington would be able to win the hearts of the Arabs, no matter where they live, after the recent American role in the Middle East crisis both on the field and in the United Nations.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2017