The retired army officer had gone missing from Nepal about two months ago.
Islamabad:
There is "no concrete evidence" that the Indian intelligence is behind the reported kidnapping of a retired Pakistani army colonel in Nepal, a Pakistan minister has told the parliament. The minister said Islamabad could not take this case to the UN's top court on the basis of "assumptions".
The retired army officer had gone missing from Nepal about two months ago. Pakistan foreign officer had earlier told reporters that they had approached the governments of Nepal and India for help to trace the officer. In Pakistan, there has been insinuation in the media and elsewhere that Indian agencies were linked to the kidnapping.
But when Pakistan's Minister for States and Frontier Regions Gen (retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch was asked by lawmakers why the government wasn't petitioning the International Court of Justice, the Dawn newspaper quoted the minister as saying, that they did not really have "any final report suggesting that the Indian intelligence agency was available" with the foreign ministry.
Asked if the "absence of concrete evidence" implied the Foreign Office was exonerating India on this count, the minister appeared to suggest that Pakistan was "100 per cent sure" about Indian involvement even if it did not have any evidence.
The Foreign Office is trying to obtain concrete evidence, he said. Expressing his helplessness about non-cooperation from Nepal, he said no sovereign country could be pressured.
Mian Raza Rabbani, chairman of the Pakistan's parliament also directed Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz to brief the house on the steps taken by the government in this case.
(With inputs from PTI)
The retired army officer had gone missing from Nepal about two months ago. Pakistan foreign officer had earlier told reporters that they had approached the governments of Nepal and India for help to trace the officer. In Pakistan, there has been insinuation in the media and elsewhere that Indian agencies were linked to the kidnapping.
But when Pakistan's Minister for States and Frontier Regions Gen (retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch was asked by lawmakers why the government wasn't petitioning the International Court of Justice, the Dawn newspaper quoted the minister as saying, that they did not really have "any final report suggesting that the Indian intelligence agency was available" with the foreign ministry.
Asked if the "absence of concrete evidence" implied the Foreign Office was exonerating India on this count, the minister appeared to suggest that Pakistan was "100 per cent sure" about Indian involvement even if it did not have any evidence.
The Foreign Office is trying to obtain concrete evidence, he said. Expressing his helplessness about non-cooperation from Nepal, he said no sovereign country could be pressured.
Mian Raza Rabbani, chairman of the Pakistan's parliament also directed Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz to brief the house on the steps taken by the government in this case.
(With inputs from PTI)
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