In retaliation to India's move, Pakistan declared one of the Indian High Commissioner's staffers as persona non grata.
In a tit-for-tat action, Pakistan on Thursday expelled Surjeet Singh, an official of the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, apparently in retaliation against the Indian action of declaring Pakistani High Commission staffer in New Delhi, Mehmood Akhtar, persona non grata. Hours after Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit at South Block to protest against the espionage activities of Akhtar, late in the evening in Islamabad, Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry rang up Indian High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale and summoned him to the Pakistan Foreign Office. As expected, the Indian High Commissioner was told that one of his staffers Surjeet Singh was declared persona non grata.
“The Foreign Secretary expressed deep concern over the activities of the Indian official that were in violation of the Vienna Convention and the established diplomatic norms,” said a statement issued by Pakistan Foreign Office.
Unlike India, which put out a detailed charge list against Akhtar, who was working as an undercover assistant to the Councillor (Trade), Pakistan’s statement did not mention any charges against Singh.
In a typical Cold War style, India and Pakistan have been indulging in the game of diplomatic expulsions to score points. In the past, there had been several acts of intimidation, beating, and even abduction of Indian diplomatic staff in Islamabad. In 1992, New Delhi and Islamabad signed a Code of Conduct for treatment of their diplomats in order to mitigate the allegations from both the sides.
This agreement, however, has often been violated, leading to diplomatic expulsions from time to time by the two countries. In the past, the biggest incident of diplomatic action has been the expulsion of Pakistan’s acting High Commissioner Jalil Abbas Jilani in January 2003 in New Delhi for helping Kashmiri separatists. Pakistan retaliated by “boxing in” the flag car of the acting Indian High Commissioner Sudhir Vyas in Islamabad. Later Vyas, along with four other staffers, was expelled.
The earliest high-profile expulsion from Indian side was that of Brig Zaheer Abbasi, defence advisor at the Pakistan High Commission, just a few days ahead of then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s famous trip to Islamabad to attend the SAARC summit in 1988 and revive dialogue with then counterpart Benazir Bhutto. Delhi Police had caught him at Green Park hotel handing over Rs 25,000 for secret documents.
In 1997, Pakistan expelled SK Chaudhury from the Indian High Commission in Islamabad and India retaliated by calling for the withdrawal of Murad Baloch from the Pakistani mission in New Delhi. Again in 2000, India expelled three Pakistani diplomats because of “activities incompatible with their official status”. Months after the Agra summit in December 2001, India recalled its ambassador to Pakistan in response to an attack on its Parliament and reduced the size of the staff at its diplomatic mission.
In May 2002, India asked Pakistan to follow suit, by reducing the size of its diplomatic staff. It also asked Pakistan’s then envoy Ashraf Jehangir Qazi to leave the country. In January 2003, came the high-profile expulsion of Acting High Commissioner Jalil Abbas Jilani, along with four other members of the mission, on charges of helping Kashmiri separatists.
According to diplomatic norms, once a diplomat is declared persona non-grata, he is not allowed to go to that country. Ironically, in 2012, India had to receive Jilani to take forward the peace process — after being stalled by the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks — as he had become foreign secretary.
In 2006, Pakistan expelled Deepak Kaul, a Counsellor at the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, after accusing him of possessing “sensitive documents”. He was detained and interrogated while driving from Islamabad to Lahore. India retaliated by expelling Syed Muhammad Rafique Ahmed, a Counsellor in the Pakistan mission in New Delhi.
But the most curious case has been that of Indian diplomat Madhuri Gupta. Delhi police’s Special Cell arrested Madhuri Gupta on April 22, 2010. She was posted as Second Secretary in the Indian High Commission in Islamabad. According to the chargesheet filed by the police in 2010, she was involved in a relationship with Jamshed, an ISI official, whom she planned to marry. She was accused of passing on sensitive information to the ISI agent.
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