AUGUST 24, 2018
FILE PHOTO: Labourers, who set up the venue, sit under a wall with a billboard displaying a photo of Imran Khan, chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), political party, as they listen to him during a campaign rally ahead of general elections in Karachi, Pakistan July 22, 2018. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro/File Photo
Karachi, Pakistan – Pakistan has called for the United States to amend what its foreign ministry described as a “factually incorrect” account of a phone call between U.S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo and new Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The row comes ahead of a planned visit by Pompeo to Islamabad in the first week of September to meet with Khan, who was sworn in as prime minister last week.
The U.S. State Department readout of the call said Pompeo wished Khan success and also asked Khan to take “decisive action against all terrorists operating in Pakistan”.
U.S. officials regularly raise the issue of Taliban and other militants operating from safe havens in Pakistan, where they plot attacks on U.S. and Afghan troops across the border.
Pakistan regularly denies that the Afghan Taliban operates from its soil.
And overnight on Thursday, Pakistan’s foreign ministry asserted that the issue of militants never came up in the phone call between Pompeo and Khan.
“Pakistan takes exception to the factually incorrect statement issued by U.S. State Dept on today’s phone call,” the spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Twitter.
“There was no mention at all in the conversation about terrorists operating in Pakistan. This should be immediately corrected.”
The U.S. embassy in Islamabad could not immediately be reached for comment.
Pompeo is expected in Islamabad on September 5, and is likely to be the first foreign dignitary to meet with Khan since he was sworn in.
Khan is well known for his criticism of U.S. military policy in Afghanistan, but he said after winning elections last week that he seeks better relations with the United States after a series of aid cuts and the suspension of U.S. military training.
Courtesy: Reuters
