London (TDI): In a heated interview, on Tuesday, with Sky News Anchor Yalda Hakim, Pakistan’s Senator and former Ambassador to the United States Sherry Rehman delivered clear and factual responses to the questions raised by Hakim, which many viewers found aggressively biased.
The interview aired in the context of May’s military confrontation between India and Pakistan and at a time while Pakistan’s delegation; of which Sherry Rehman is a part, is visiting important capitals to convey Pakistan’s perspective to the world.
The talk, which was aimed at discussing regional instability and security issues, quickly shifted to being controversial when Hakim introduced unverified allegations on Pakistan’s involvement in regional unrest and also referred to Brigade 313 – which is a defunct militant group, as having links with Al-Qaeda.
Rehman dismissed the claims and stated, “I don’t know who told you this, I can produce any number of pages saying all of this. Perhaps we should also produce a digital dossier.”
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Senator Rehman used the opportunity to reflect on how Pakistan has evolved by citing the progress against terrorism, adding “Pakistan is a changed country now. We were taken off the FATF grey list because we provided evidence. Pakistan has filed 2645 terrorism financing cases. These organizations are proscribed now and at least 2000 of their members have been arrested.”
In response to India’s aggressive posturing citing “terrorism” as the issue, Rehman said, “If collective punishment is fair game, should we then bomb terrorist Kulbhushan Jadhav’s family compound too?”
Throughout the interview, Hakim tried to interrupt and didn’t let Sherry Rehman answer properly but the Senator didn’t shy away and openly called out the actual source behind the rhetoric, “Most of the analysts you are quoting are aligned with India’s narrative. They only tell India’s story. And this is our deficit that we haven’t been able to tell our story right.”
Yalda Hakim hosts “The World with Yalda Hakim” on Sky News, which is a British News Channel. She hails from Kabul, Afghanistan and is known for a very biased perspective against Pakistan, which makes her a very popular host among Indians.
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