Despite US pressure, Pakistan backs Gaddafi

Islamabad, July 25 (ANI): Pakistan continues to extend support to Libyan dicator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi despite pressure from Washington.

Gaddafi is seeking Islamabad's assistance to overcome the challenges his authority faces in Tripoli.

A senior official of the Libyan ministry of foreign affairs is due to arrive in Islamabad on July 27 with a special message from Qaddafi for President Asif Ali Zardari, a highly informed source told The Express Tribune.

The special envoy will also meet Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar.

Tripoli has appreciated Islamabad's position that the US-led armed intervention in Libya is beyond the UN mandate.

Islamabad has told Washington that it would only recognise a government in Libya that controls Tripoli.

Pakistan has so far refused to accord recognition to 'a state-less Transitional International Council' as the legitimate authority in Libya and maintains that it still considered Qaddafi's government as the lawful regime in Tripoli.

Islamabad, however, has not yet nominated a new ambassador to Tripoli after it sent the last one, Jamil Ahmed Khan, to the UAE.

"We will appoint our new ambassador to Tripoli once the ongoing political turmoil is over in Libya," a foreign office source said. (ANI)