Islamabad: Seems like Pakistan has suffered another blow on the diplomatic front. A Lahore-based weekly magazine 'Friday Times' has claimed that Prime Minister Imran Khan's actions at the UN General Assembly miffed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman to an extent that he ordered his private jet flying the Pakistani delegation from New York to Karachi, to return midway.
When Khan was on a two-day visit to Saudi Arabia, the Crown Prince had insisted Pakistan Prime Minister to fly to the United States on his "special aircraft".
However, during his return trip, Khan, who was travelling in the jet provided to him by the Saudi government, had to deboard it midway and board a commercial flight as the Saudi plane had developed a technical glitch minutes after taking off from New York airport.
Interestingly, the Friday Times in its article revealed that there were no reports of any technical glitch and the Pakistani delegation, including Khan, were "disemboweled" from the Saudi's aircraft following Salman's resentment.
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The magazine, in its report titled 'Tryst with democracy', critisized Pakistan Prime Minister.
"Imran Khan has returned from New York a 'conquering hero'. Never mind that he admitted Pakistan's culpability in germinating Al Qaeda. Never mind that he raised the world's hackles by brandishing nuclear weapons and threatening Armageddon. Never mind that the vicious Indian lockdown in Kashmir persists. Never mind that the prospects of Indo-Pak dialogue are dimmer than ever before. Never mind that a territorial state conflict has been relegated to a clash of fierce ideologies representing 'Islamic' Pakistan and 'Hindu' India."
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The report added, "There were some unintended consequences of the trip too. Inexplicably, the Saudi crown prince, Mohammad bin Salman, was so alienated by some dimensions of the Pakistani prime minister's diplomacy in New York - he couldn't have been happy at the prospect of Imran Khan, Recip Tayyib Erdogan and Mahathir Mohammad planning to jointly represent the Islamic bloc, nor with Pakistan's interlocution with Iran without his explicit approval -- that he visibly snubbed Imran by ordering his private jet to disembowel the Pakistani delegation. Significantly, too, Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the UN, Maleeha Lodhi, lost her job (did Khan's cronies have anything to do with it?) before the dust of 'victory at the UN' had settled."
Meanwhile, Islamabad which has been left red-faced has rejected claims made by the magazine that the report was "totally false and absolutely carries no truth whatsoever".
