By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Ministry said on Friday that it had no knowledge of, and granted no authorisation for, an interaction between a senior adviser to the prime minister and Israel’s top tourism official at a travel-industry fair in London last week, after a video of the two men shaking hands ignited fierce criticism across the country.
The episode, captured on a brief clip that spread rapidly on social media, showed Sardar Yasir Ilyas, the prime minister’s coordinator on tourism and youth affairs, greeting Michael Izhar-Kov, director general of Israel’s Ministry of Tourism, at the World Travel Market, held Nov. 4-6 at the ExCeL exhibition center in London.
At his weekly news briefing, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, Tahir Hussain Andrabi, said he had “no information” about any such encounter. “I have no information on this meeting,” Andrabi said when asked about the video. “The gentleman you referred to is a public figure. I would request you to ask him about the meeting. I have no information on this.”
Pressed further, he added: “I have not seen the report or any information on a meeting of the adviser to the prime minister or any public figure with an Israeli representative. I can assure you that if such a meeting or interaction took place, it was, certainly, without authorisation by the government.”
Andrabi also addressed broader questions about alleged past contacts between Pakistani citizens and Israel, saying any such trips would violate passport rules that explicitly bar travel to Israel. “I can tell you with a certain assurance that they were not authorised or under information of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” he said. “If these individuals have violated any passport regulations pertaining to travel to a country disallowed on Pakistan passport, our authorities ought to look into it.”
The video prompted immediate outrage. Mushtaq Ahmed Khan, a former senator from the Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami, posted on X: “Shaking hands with the killers of Palestinians is a betrayal of Al-Aqsa, Gaza, and the Palestinians.” He called the encounter “shameful” and vowed that “the nation will not forgive the traitors of the Palestinian people.”
Fatima Bhutto, the writer and granddaughter of former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, wrote: “Disgusting treason. Shaking hands dripping with the blood of Palestinians.” Shireen Mazari, a former human rights minister, posted simply: “It is not when it happened but how it happened!”
However, a London-based Pakistani journalist wrote that a group of Israelis had entered the Pakistan pavilion “unannounced” and met the delegation “without introducing themselves.” The episode gained additional resonance after Rai Kais, an Israeli journalist, posted a translation in Hebrew, noting that Pakistan had recently been mentioned as a possible participant in a proposed international force in Gaza.
In the same briefing, Andrabi firmly rejected any suggestion that Islamabad was close to joining such a force. “No decision has been taken as yet on Pakistan’s participation,” he said. He noted that the mandate of the proposed International Stabilisation Force remained under discussion at the United Nations Security Council, where Pakistan currently holds a non-permanent seat.
“Pakistan’s participation in the stabilisation force will be a decision taken at the highest level, including through participation of the Parliament,” he said. Pakistan continues to withhold diplomatic recognition of Israel and maintains the wording on its passports declaring them invalid for travel there — a clause the Information Ministry recently confirmed remains unchanged.
Andrabi also used the briefing to deliver an unusually blunt message to the Taliban authorities in Afghanistan, accusing them of sheltering anti-Pakistan militants and warning that some factions inside the regime were deliberately stoking tensions.
“Pakistan has never eschewed dialogue with any government in Kabul,” he said. “However, Pakistan will not hold dialogue with any terrorist groups, be it Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) or Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA).”
He described a “sharp surge” in terrorist attacks launched from Afghan soil since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, and accused the Kabul authorities of responding only with “hollow promises and inaction.” A third round of talks aimed at reducing cross-border terrorism ended inconclusively in Istanbul on Nov. 7, mediated by Qatar and Turkey. A fragile ceasefire along the border remains in place.
Andrabi accused “some elements” within the Taliban leadership of receiving foreign funding to provoke confrontation with Pakistan and of falsely portraying TTP fighters as refugees. He rejected any suggestion of divisions within Pakistan over policy toward Afghanistan, insisting the country was united behind its armed forces. The spokesman closed by reaffirming Islamabad’s preference for dialogue but insisted that terrorism emanating from Afghanistan must be addressed “first and foremost.”
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