Ambassador Grannas of Germany Faces Awkward Situation in Asma Jahangir Conference on part of both, The Pro-Palestine Protesters as well as The Organizers
Asma Jahangir Conference is Basically Anti Establishment Yearly Event the EU Envoys Happily Participate In – This year It was not Pleasant because of Palestine – Students of Government College University Lahore staged a protest in between the conference when all EU and Canadian Ambassadors were present while Ambassador Alfred Grannas of Germany was on stage to start his speech but it was disrupted.
Anyway, everyone knows that the countries and organizations mostly work on selective human rights issues and do not contribute across the board. Examples are Ukraine and Gaza. Pakistan did not stand against Russia only because EU have never been prompt in its response on Kashmir against India. The same is true for Asma Jahangir , when she was alive and for the org her daughter is operating. They pick up the issue of human rights of their own choice and leave all the other cases that are most often more severe and urgent than their picked up matters.
Ambassador too responded in the same manner that can be seen in the pictures attached and edited by our staff only to convey the real scene of what happened. Ambassador of Spain was sitting on the stage with the host. Ambassadors of Canada, France, Poland were also present in the front row. Diplomats of Finland Embassy were also there.
Interestingly , when Ambassador was responding to the students , his own mic went off. Muneezay Jahangir , the daughter and organizer of the conference rejects the impression as if the mic was off by the direction of the organizer but the pics clearly show that the mic was off and later a technician was called who set it on.
Whatever was this , practical situation was , that the protestors were already in the hall prepared to disrupt German Ambassador particularly.
Non welcoming remarks were already being posted on the curtain raiser of the conference and Ambassador’s participation but the organizers did not bother to address the issue timely and allowed it to happen.
Secondly, the mic of the Ambassador abruptly stopped working while he was trying to convince the students not to shout but have discussion on their reservations.
Here it is also worth noting that the host Ms Muneezay while sharing her side of view to a journalist said, ” We are holding sessions on Gaza as well.” But she could not state that who have been invited from the Embassy of Palestine. It means she was just trying to cover up the situation.
Tazeen Akhtar
