President Alvi says Pakistan not establishing ties with Israel

ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi on Sunday dismissed reports of an Israeli jet landing in Pakistan, saying the government is not establishing any sort of relations with Israel. 

Speaking to media at Islamabad airport before his departure for Turkey, the president said the report about the alleged arrival of the plan is baseless and unfounded.

He denied in categorical terms that the PTI government is considering establishing ties with Israel.

The president said Turkey is an important friend of Pakistan and had always supported Islamabad on various issues, including Kashmir.   He said besides Saudi Arabia, the government will also invite other friendly countries to invest in the country.

During his stay in Turkey, the president will address the inaugural ceremony of new International Airport of Istanbul.

Presidents and Prime Ministers of several other countries will also participate in the ceremony.

President Dr. Arif Alvi is also expected to hold bilateral meetings with his Turkish counterpart and leaders of other countries on the occasion.

Yesterday, A Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) spokesperson clarified that no aircraft from Israel touched down at any airport in Pakistan. There is no truth in the rumors about the arrival of an Israeli plane in Pakistan, he added.

This clarification came on the heels of a tweet by Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry assailing PML-N stalwart Ahsan Iqbal who shared a media report about the alleged arrival of the aircraft on his verified twitter account seeking an explanation from the government.

Avi Scharf, the editor of Israeli newspaper Haaretz’s English edition, had tweeted that an Israeli aircraft had travelled from Tel Aviv to Islamabad.

He claimed that the flight made a brief stopover in Amman to create the impression that the flight actually took off from Amman not from Tel Aviv.