ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has promised to look into the case of a woman visitor who has alleged indecent behaviour by some senior staff members of the country’s high commission in New Delhi as it expressed “zero tolerance” for misbehaviour at its missions.
This came after a college professor from Indian Punjab accused senior staffers of the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi of indecent behaviour when she had sought visa. The woman alleged that when she had visited the embassy to apply for a visa to travel to Pakistan in 2021, some senior staffers made sexual advances towards her.
The woman, a senior professor and head of a department at a university in Punjab, said she had booked an online visa appointment with the Pakistan High Commission.
When asked by local media about the purpose of her visit to Lahore, she told an official, “I wish to visit Lahore to photograph the monuments and write on them and also visit a university where I was invited to deliver a lecture.”
When she was about to leave, another staffer arrived and allegedly started asking her personal questions.
“He asked me why I wasn’t married. How do I live without marriage, what do I do for my sexual desires,” the woman told local media.
The woman claimed the official persisted with his questions despite her attempts to change the topic.
In her complaint to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, she has asked for the matter to be taken up and sought justice.
Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, issued a statement in response to the media queries about the alleged indecent treatment by an official of the High Commission to the Indian woman, saying “there is zero tolerance for misbehaviour and mistreatment of individuals visiting our Missions,” she said. “While we are looking into this case, we are surprised at its timing and the manner in which it has been raised. There are robust mechanisms in place for redressal of all public grievances.”
She said Pakistan attaches high importance to proper etiquette and behaviour towards all visa and consular applicants, adding that “all our diplomatic staff are under strict instructions to conduct themselves professionally.”
