Key Points
- MoFA says overseas troop deployments require a UN mandate, clear rules of engagement, and parliamentary oversight
- Pakistan has never joined missions lacking international legal cover or involving coercive disarmament
- Gaza stance remains limited to peacekeeping principles, not peace enforcement
- Islamabad says foreign policy decisions cannot be driven by media speculation
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Foreign Office on Thursday firmly rejected the fake news circulating in international media suggesting a planned visit by Chief of Defence Forces, Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, to the United States to discuss a possible deployment of Pakistani troops in Gaza.
Calling the reports unfounded and misleading, at the weekly press briefing, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) Spokesperson Tahir Hussain Andrabi said no such visit is scheduled. “Any official foreign engagement by senior military leadership is announced through formal government channels,” he added. He cautioned against treating speculative reporting as evidence of policy intent.
Providing context, Andrabi said the claims originated from a report by Reuters that fuelled conjecture about Pakistan being asked to deploy troops in Gaza. He said such narratives ignore Pakistan’s clearly defined legal, constitutional, and diplomatic framework governing overseas military missions.
The spokesperson reiterated that Pakistan’s policy on foreign deployments remains unchanged. Any mission abroad, he said, “must be authorised by a United Nations mandate, operate under defined rules of engagement, and be subject to parliamentary oversight. None of these prerequisites,” he added, exist in the case of Gaza.
Highlighting Pakistan’s peacekeeping credentials, Andrabi noted that more than 230,000 Pakistani troops have served in UN peacekeeping missions since 1960. Pakistan, he said, has never participated in operations lacking international legal cover or those involving coercive disarmament of local resistance groups, including Hamas.
He recalled the foreign minister’s earlier statement that Pakistan’s role, if any, in Gaza would be peacekeeping rather than peace enforcement, a position he said remains intact. Assertions that Pakistan is under pressure to “deliver troops” overstate external leverage and underplay Pakistan’s domestic political, constitutional, and strategic constraints.
The Foreign Office also emphasised that foreign deployments carry serious political, legal, and security implications that cannot be bypassed through media narratives. Andrabi said Pakistan’s engagement with the United States reflects diplomatic normalization between sovereign states, not subordination or operational alignment.
He clarified that diplomatic dialogue on Gaza does not equate to an operational commitment. Pakistan, he said, continues to advocate for an immediate ceasefire, unhindered humanitarian access, and a political solution consistent with the wishes and rights of the Palestinian people.
