A high-profile debate at the Oxford Union that was scheduled to feature senior figures from Pakistan and India was cancelled after the Indian delegation withdrew at the last minute, prompting strong reactions from Pakistan\u2019s High Commission in London and triggering speculations about why India pulled out last minute.<\/p>\n
According to statements issued by the High Commission, the debate centred on the motion \u201cThis House Believes India\u2019s Policy Towards Pakistan is a Populist Strategy Sold as Security Policy\u201d had been confirmed weeks in advance. It is scheduled for 12:30am PKT.<\/p>\n
Pakistan\u2019s delegation, comprising former Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee chairman Lt Gen (R) Zubair Mahmood Hayat, former foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar and former diplomat Dr Mohammad Faisal, was already in London for the event.<\/p>\n
The High Commission claimed that India\u2019s originally announced speakers, General M.M. Naravane, Dr Subramanian Swamy and politician Sachin Pilot, \u201cwithdrew at the eleventh hour\u201d, leaving the event without its opposing panel.<\/p>\n
It further alleged that India later proposed \u201cobscure and low-profile replacements\u201d that did not match the level of the Pakistani delegation and \u201cundermined the credibility and balance of the debate.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe collective retreat of the Indian delegation amounted to an unchallenged victory for Pakistan,\u201d the High Commission stated, adding that India\u2019s withdrawal \u201cexposed the weakness of its narrative on a neutral academic platform\u201d.<\/p>\n
Sources familiar with the matter told Dawn that the last-minute shift was \u201cvery bizarre\u201d, noting that such debates were typically finalised far in advance and that delegations typically agreed knowing who they were debating.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A high-profile debate at the Oxford Union that was scheduled to feature senior figures from Pakistan and India was cancelled after the Indian delegation withdrew at the last minute, prompting strong reactions from Pakistan\u2019s High Commission in London and triggering speculations about why India pulled out last minute. According to statements issued by the High […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13687,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13686"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13688,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13686\/revisions\/13688"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}