A former aide of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan made a secret visit to Israel last November for meetings with foreign ministry officials and the then Mossad chief, according to an Israeli media report on Monday.
Sayed Zulfi Bukhari, a British Pakistani businessman who served as Khans special assistant on overseas Pakistanis till May this year, conveyed a message from the Pakistani premier to Israeli foreign ministry officials and another message from Pakistan Army chief Gen Qamar Bajwa to then Israeli spy chief Yossi Cohen, Israel Hayom newspaper reported.
The report said Bukhari, who lives in the UK, arrived at Ben Gurion airport from Islamabad on a connecting flight to London in the last week of November, taking advantage of his British passport. He travelled to Tel Aviv for the meetings and the Pakistan-Israel contacts were the outcome of heavy pressure from the UAE, the report added.
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In December 2020, the newspaper had reported about a secret visit to Israel by a senior adviser to the leader of a large Muslim-majority country despite the two countries having no diplomatic relations. At the time, the newspaper didnt name the Muslim country involved.
On Monday, Israel Hayom identified the country as Pakistan after getting clearance from the Israeli military censor. Mondays reported cited a source in Islamabad.
The visit to Tel Aviv by the Pakistani official came against the backdrop of key Muslim countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco normalising relations with Israel and a debate within Pakistans political and diplomatic circles about re-evaluating the countrys position on Israel. However, Khan had said in an interview in August last year that Pakistan cannot ever accept Israel as long as Palestinians are not given their rights and there is no just settlement.
Khan had appointed Bukhari as his special assistant on overseas Pakistanis and human resource development a month after assuming office in September 2018. Bukhari, who had the status of a minister of state, resigned from the post on May 17 this year following allegations that he had illegally benefited from changes made to the Rawalpindi Ring Road project.
Bukhari had denied allegations that he had received financial benefits because his land was located near the project.
Israel Hayoms report would suggest this was the first formal contact between Pakistan and Israel since the era of former military dictator Pervez Musharraf. At Musharrafs initiative and with backing from Pakistans ally Turkey, then Pakistani foreign minister Khurshid Kasuri met his Israeli counterpart Silvan Shalom in the Turkish city of Istanbul on September 1, 2005.
People familiar with developments said on condition of anonymity that the Pakistan-Israel contacts in 2005 had not led to any substantial engagement and had subsequently fizzled out.
In a statement issued by the Israeli foreign ministry in 2005, Shalom had described his meeting with Kasuri as historic and said Israeli hoped it would herald the beginning of an open and mutually beneficial relationship between the two countries. Shalom also thanked Musharraf for his courage in promoting peace and moderation in our region.
