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| March 21, 2007 | Wednesday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 1, 1428 |
EU Troika raises judiciary issue in demarche
ISLAMABAD, March 20: The EU Troika heads of mission in Islamabad on Monday made a demarche at the Foreign Office on the developments in the country following the presidential reference against the Chief Justice of Pakistan and the government has taken a strong exception to it.
Notably, the demarche was made just one hour after the Foreign Office Spokesperson Tasnim Aslam told the weekly news briefing that no concern had been expressed by the international community at the diplomatic level on the ongoing judicial crisis and cautioned against such comments.
In what was seen as a departure from diplomatic norms the announcement about the demarche came in the form of a press release issued on Tuesday by the Embassy of Germany, which holds the current presidency of the EU. The EU Troika represents the European Commission and the current and the future presidencies of the European Council.
The demarche was made to the additional foreign secretary, Europe, Miangul Akbarzeb on Monday afternoon during a 15-minute meeting. Later, the Troika heads of the mission were briefed on the current situation by foreign secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan, it is learnt.
Apparently the EU Troika representatives had put in a request for a meeting with the foreign secretary on Saturday, sources told Dawn. The one-paragraph EU Troika press release, titled “EU Troika Demarche in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan”, said the Troika had discussed current developments in Pakistan, in particular with regard to the judiciary with high-ranking representatives of the Pakistani Foreign Ministry on Monday.
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