'Totally made up and baseless': Moeed Yusuf rejects reports claiming he may be appointed as Pakistan's new high commissioner to India

Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) Imran Khan on National Security Dr Moeed Yusuf rejected on Thursday media reports claiming that he is being considered for Pakistan's new high commissioner to India.

In a tweet today, the SAPM shared a new story by The News titled ''Moeed Yusuf tipped as high commissioner to India". The news report which has since been deleted, suggested that there were chances of Yusuf's appointment as High Commissioner to India as both countries have shown positive signs of reconciliation during the past few days, Geo reported.

Yusuf said this is 'totally made up and baseless'. "I know its too much to ask for a news story to be fact checked before publication these days. But at least the story shouldn’t defy all logic. It is totally made up and baseless," the SAPM tweeted.

In February, Indian media reports claimed that the ceasefire announcement between Pakistani and Indian DGMOs was the result of some backchannel diplomacy between Yusuf and the Indian National Security Adviser.

The SAPM had termed the Indian media reports as baseless, saying that no such talks took place between him and Doval. "The welcome development on the LoC is a result of discussions through the established channel of DGMOs. Obviously these are by their very nature not in the public eye and done privately and professionally through the direct channel," the SAPM tweeted.

Yusuf was appointed as PM's special assistant on the national security division in December 2019. He was formerly the associate vice president of the Asia centre at the US Institute of Peace in Washington DC.