Pakistan closes consulate in Jalalabad
Islamabad: Pakistan has shut down its Consulate General in Jalalabad City in Nangarhar province to protest local officials’ intervention in activities of the diplomatic office. The Pakistani embassy in Kabul said that the decision wsa taken in reaction to provincial governor Hayatullah Hayat’s intervention in activities of the consulate.
“The Embassy of Pakistan in Kabul deeply regrets undue intervention of Governor Hayatullah Hayat in the functioning of the Consulate General of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in Jalalabad is complete violation of the Vienna Convention of the Consular Relations 1963,” the embassy said.
It said that the Consulate General will remain closed until the security arrangements are completed to the satisfaction of the embassy.
The embassy said it had requested the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs to “kindly refrain the governor from interfering in the functioning of the Consulate General and to ensure restoration of security of the consulate office as it existed on August 28, 2018.”