FO dismisses reports that former SAPM Zulfi Bukhari visited Israel

Islamabad: Former Prime Minister Zulfi Buhari, a Pakistani overseas, and a former special assistant to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected reports on Monday that a former aide of Prime Minister Imran Khan had secretly visited Israel to “transmit messages from important people.”

“[I] Did not go to Israel. Interestingly, the Pakistani newspapers said that I went to Israel based on “Israeli news sources”, while the Israeli newspapers said that I went to Israel based on “Pakistan sources”-I want to know who this imaginative Pakistani source is,” Buhari said. The media reports were refuted on Twitter.

He quipped that “obviously” he was “the only one” who “kept silent” about his visit.

FO refused to visit Israel report

At the same time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also rejected reports about Buhari’s visit to Israel.

“These reports are baseless and misleading. No such visit has been made to Israel,” said FO spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri. He also told the media that Buhari also issued a rejection of the report.

The spokesperson also stated that FO also refuted “similar false reports” on December 18 last year.

Buhari allegedly visited Israel

A day ago, the Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom claimed that Buhari flew from London to Israel. According to reports, Buhari arrived at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel and was subsequently transferred to Tel Aviv.

According to reports, the former SAPM met with officials of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Mossad Director Yossi Cohen in Tel Aviv during his visit.

It claimed that former aides of Prime Minister Imran Khan went to Israel to deliver messages from “important people.”

Israeli publications quoted “Islamabad sources” as saying that Buhari used his British passport to visit the country due to “great pressure” from the United Arab Emirates.

The report also said that the visit was because the two countries are expected to participate in a joint naval exercise with the US Navy in the Black Sea.

The editor of another Israeli newspaper also shared the news on social media.

The opposition attacks the government

The Bharatiya Janata Party Chairman Bilavar Bhutto-Zardari criticized the government’s actions, saying that the government must “disclose the details of Zulfi Buhari’s so-called visit to Israel.”

Bilawal said: “There are reports that a plane is flying from Pakistan to Israel, so the government must clarify the details of the route to the country.”

He questioned: “If a plane flies to Israel via Pakistan, who has approved it?”

He further added that because the Israeli newspaper published the report after obtaining the approval of the country’s Ministry of Defense, there are some suspicious points in the whole story.

At the same time, PML-N leader Khurram Dastagir stated that if the report is not true, then the FO should reject the report.

The former defense minister said in an interview with the geographic news program Capital Talk that Buhari was SAPM when the plane flew, so the government should reject the report.