Visited Israel during ex-PM Nawaz Sharif’s tenure, admits Maulana Ajmal Qadri  

ISLAMABAD: Patron-in-Chief of the Central Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Maulana Ajmal Qadri on Saturday admitted that a delegation visited Israel during the tenure of former Prime Minister and PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, ARY NEWS reported.

“We met with the foreign ministry officials of Israel and members of the Israeli cabinet,” he said.

Maulana Ajmal Qadri said that Israeli officials visited them at their hotel where they had an in-depth discussion on trade and other affairs.

“They wanted that Pakistan should not link normalization of political and diplomatic relations with Israel to Palestine issue,” he said.

Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Political Communication Dr Shahbaz Gill while commenting on the admission said that it was unfortunate that Nawaz Sharif and his advisers were involved in back-door talks with Israelis.

It is pertinent to mention here that Israeli media has claimed that the Pakistani delegation twice visited Tel  Aviv in the tenure of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

According to Israeli media, Nawaz Sharif sent the Pakistani delegation twice to Israel. A religious delegation was led by Moulvi Ajmal Qadri.

Read More: ‘Pakistan will never accept Israel unless Palestine issue is resolved’

Founder of Islamic Theology of Counter-Terrorism Think Tank, Noor Dahri while talking to Israeli media had claimed that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, during his tenure, had sent two delegations to Israel in a bid to normalise relations with the country.

He said that Maryam Nawaz had tweeted the link of his interview with i24 to embrace Prime Minister Imran Khan and use this as a tool against the PTI government, but she soon deleted the tweet after realising that details of sending delegations to Israel by Pakistan during the tenure of her father [Nawaz Sharif] were exposed in the interview.