Pakistan says reports of financial difficulties being faced by foreign missions baseless

Islamabad: Pakistan’s Foreign Office has rejected reports of financial crunch being faced by the Pakistani missions abroad asserting that all diplomatic missions were being provided “requisite resources”.

“To say the government of Pakistan has no funds or shortage of funds for its missions abroad is simply absurd,” said the FO spokesperson Asim Iftikhar in a statement terming such reports “entirely baseless, irresponsible and malafide.”

A day earlier, a section of media had stated citing sources, stated that the Embassy of Pakistan in Washington had run short of funds and was not in a position to pay salaries for at least four months to some of its employees, however the Pakistani ambassador’s prompt action saved the day, the report had said.

The issue of the reported shortage of funds being faced by foreign missions had surfaced after the Pakistani embassy in Serbia, using its official Twitter handle, flagged the problem.

The official Twitter handle of Pakistan’s embassy in Serbia had on Friday criticized the PTI-led government over record-breaking inflation and alleged non-payment of salaries for the past three months.

The tweet by the verified account of the embassy had asked Prime Minister Imran Khan as to how long did he expect the government officials to remain silent in the face of “hyperinflation”.

However, the Foreign Office spokesperson, in a tweet, claimed that Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts of the country’s mission in Belgrade were “hacked”.

The Serbian embassy, in a separate statement, also claimed that its social media accounts were hacked and did not reflect the embassy’s official stance.