India Charges Pakistan for Blocking Government Websites
New Delhi : While of unfriendliness between India and Pakistan can been seen almost daily in border areas, and Indian residential complex in Islamabad, sources reported about Pakistan decision to block access to all Indian government websites (gov.in) in May 2017. Following this, Pakistan has stretched out for a WTO ministerial meeting which will be held in India next week.
Official sources mentioned that as many as 5 form of diplomatic communication (note verbale) had been issued to Pakistan to not block access to any Indian government website. The first note verbale was issued on May 18 2007 and the latest one was delivered only earlier this week.
According to Indian officials, Pakistan has blocked the website intentionally to not allow Indian diplomats and officials to access their own government websites. This meant that the Indian high commission was covered with complaints from Pakistan nationals who mentioned that they were unable to access Indian visa forms.
During the tensed environment, an official said "This has led to mushrooming of agents who have helped Pakistan nationals fill up visa forms through proxy servers,’’. It is likely to create obstruction in the normal functioning of the Indian assignments.
Diplomatic sources mentioned that Pakistan has scheduled the WTO ministerial meeting to be held here from March 19-20. There are possible chances that the ongoing diplomatic confrontation could aggravate further.
While the WTO meeting would be a multilateral engagement, India's decision to invite Pakistan commerce minister Pervaiz Malik for the event is expected to liquefy the relationship. Sources said that Malik has already confirmed his participation.
In fact, India has issued another note verbale to Pakistan saying that its diplomats and other officials were under pressure on 7-8 events since past few days. Pakistan too issued a note verbale on Friday alleging that nameless men intercepted the car of a senior diplomat, who was along with his two minor daughters, and sparked torchlight at them. It also reported 4 other incidents, taking the total number of instances of such alleged annoyance and threats since March 7 to 30.
As of now, India and Pakistan are ensuring that there is no further wear and tear in the bilateral ties in the next few weeks. Despite the recent incidents of harassment, diplomats from both countries Pakistan high commissioner Sohail Mahmood's visit to Pakistan for discussion with his government couldn't be seen as an appreciation.
On the other hand, when Indian officials continue to retain that all "genuine" accusationa made by Pakistan high commission will be examined, Islamabad has accused the Indian government for disagreeing with the "validity of its complaints".
According to Pakistan, while aggressive investigation has happened in past two days, the "nature, scale and intensity" of recent incidents of alleged harassment by Indian authorities has never been observed earlier. In its latest note verbale, Pakistan said that despite the matter being brought to the notice of foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale, such incidents might continue.
