Indian FM denies making phone-call to President Zardari

[Imran Khan]

Indian FM denies making phone-call to President Zardari
Updated at: 1100 PST, Sunday, December 07, 2008
NEW DELHI: Indian Foreign Minister, Pranab Mukherjee has denied making any telephone call to President Asif Ali Zardari.

Foreign news agency quoting Pranab Mukherjee reported that he had not made any telephone call to Asif Ali Zardari, following the Mumbai blasts. It may be recalled that some contradictory reports relating to the November 28 phone call received by the President had appeared yesterday in the media, but later revealed that it was not Pranab Mukherjee, but some fake person had made that call.

Commenting on these reports, Information Minister Saturday said that all the telephone calls received at the President House are processed ahead in accordance with a laid down procedure and it was not possible that the same get passed through to the President without undergoing the identification procedure.

 

[Imran Khan]

Phone call away from war?


Sunday, December 07, 2008
The story regarding a mysterious phone call by a person who claimed to be the Indian external affairs minister and threatened President Asif Ali Zardari with military action if Pakistan did not immediately apprehend the perpetrators of the Mumbai attack, is, to put it mildly, disturbing. Following the call made last weekend, Pakistan went into a state of 'red alert', jet fighters armed with live ammunition took to the air above Islamabad and urgent, somewhat panic-stricken diplomatic efforts got underway simultaneously in Islamabad, New Delhi and Washington. The 'real' Pranab Mukherjee, woken up late at night by a call from the US, rather bemusedly denied he had had such a conversation with Mr Zardari.

The whole affair seems absurd. But it is no laughing matter. It appears a call, the origins of which remain unknown, was put through to the president with virtually no checks to determine who it came from. Worse still, it seems that the caller has still not been traced. It would appear the whole matter was the work of a mischief-maker, perhaps inspired by the news story a few weeks ago of the comedians who were able to fool US vice presidential hopeful, Sarah Palin, into believing that she was speaking to the French president.

Given that Pakistan, and indeed India, are nuclear-armed states, it should be obvious that there is a need for the most stringent security controls. Pranksters should naturally not be able to reach the president so very easily. The question of how exactly the nuclear weapons are controlled and what protocols are in place is also something we need to know more about. The report about top officials going into state of high alarm after the phone call is not reassuring. In times of high tension, such as that which has persisted over the past few days, small incidents can lead to catastrophe. This is not a matter to be taken lightly. Much like the US and the former USSR after the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, a set of measures need to be put in place by Pakistan to guard against any misunderstanding. These should include a hotline between the leaders of the two countries, a set of verification procedures and other steps. Some moves towards these were made in the past. It is not known if there are still effectively in place. Security officials at the presidency must examine how the call from an unknown person got through. The utmost caution is obviously required. We cannot afford errors or fall victim to the antics of trouble-makers who in the current situation could create mayhem

 

[PeaceForAll]

we should track that phone call. we will get a lot of clues of who is getting the real benefit of an Pak Ind stand off...

 

[Imran Khan]

Threatening call was verified, says Sherry


By Our Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD, Dec 6: Federal Information Minister Sherry Rehman said on Saturday that the threatening phone call made to President Asif Ali Zardari had been processed, verified and cross-checked under an established procedure.

Without naming Dawn, which carried the story in its edition of Dec 6 titled ‘A hoax call that could have triggered war’, a statement quoted the federal minister as having said, while commenting on reports in a section of the press, that it was not possible for any call to come through to the president without multiple caller identity verifications.

The Nov 28 call by someone from New Delhi who posed himself as Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, she insisted, had also been processed, verified and cross-checked in accordance with an intricately laid down procedure.

“In fact the identity of this particular call, as evident from the caller line identification device, showed that the call was placed from a verified official phone number of the Indian ministry of external affairs”, Ms Rehman said.

The statement, however, conveniently avoided telling whether or not the caller was Indian External Affairs Minister Mr Pranab Mukherjee.

Ms Rehman said: “Some of the press comments were based on a briefing given to a few journalists by a responsible senior official of a neighbouring country based in Islamabad”.

“The Government of Pakistan condemns such efforts aimed at using the media for negative diplomacy at a time when tensions are running high between the two countries” she added.

This is to state for the record that the senior Dawn journalist who wrote the story was not present at the briefing alluded to by the minister.—Editor