Pak Foreign Minister to skip OIC meet over invite to Sushma Swaraj

Islamabad, Dubai, Mar, 01: Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said that he will not attend the foreign ministers' meet of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) states over the invitation extended to external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj.

Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj has arrived in United Arab Emirates (UAE) to take part in the inaugural session of the foreign ministers' conclave of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Abu Dhabi.

Swaraj is expected to raise the issue of terror when she represents India for the first time at a meeting of foreign ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in the UAE's Abu Dhabi today.

His statement came amid the heightened tensions between India and Pakistan after the former claimed to have struck terror launch pads in Balakot.

Swaraj has been invited as a "guest of honour" at the inaugural session of the foreign ministers' conclave in Abu Dhabi on March 1-2.

Opposition parties in Pakistan have also called for a boycott of the OIC meeting for inviting India as "guest of honour".

"Pakistan should boycott the OIC meeting. It is an insult that our enemies are being invited as a guest of honour when Kashmiris are facing bloodshed," Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Khawaja Asif said on the National Assembly floor.