Pakistani high commissioner barred from participating in Nagpur event

The non-participation of Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit at a mock United Nations event held at Nagpur over the weekend has led to a controversy as the invitation for the event was withdrawn by the Indian authorities.

The organizers of the event, however, have said the diplomat could not attend due to logistical issues since there were just students.

A high ranking official at the Pakistan High Commission and source privy to the matter, who did not want to be named, said, “This is the fourth time this year our high commissioner has not been invited from a confirmed event, and we feel regret that such things are happening.”

The first incident was at Noida and now Nagpur.” Basit was in Nagpur from June 2 to June 4. He attended a panel discussion organized by a media house and a `Meet the Press’ event hosted by local journalists’ union, but stayed away from the June 4 event.

The organizers of the event claim Basit stayed away following mutual agreement because of logistical and scheduling issues. Rutwik Joshi, secretary of Nagpur mock UN event, said, “There were so many problems related to logistics which could not be resolved. Hence, it was mutually decided that HC Basit will not be coming as the chief guest. We had made arrangements for his team but it did not match their expectations. Since we are just students, we had limited resources available to us.”