UK tells EU will not name commissioner before polls Musharraf ’s old video boasting Pakistan mujahideens goes viral

BRUSSELS: The UK government has written to EU chief Ursula von der Leyen to say it will not nominate a British member to her top team before its December 12 election.

“We have written to the EU to confirm that pre-election guidance states the UK should not normally make nominations for international appointments during this period,” a UK official said Thursday.

A spokesman for von der Leyen’s European Commission transition team told AFP she had received the letter from British authorities overnight.

Separately, EU sources told AFP von der Leyen has had legal advice that the lack of a British commissioner will not prevent her team from taking office.

President-elect von der Leyen’s commission, made up of herself -- a German -- and senior officials from 26 other member states hopes to take office on December 1.

But the 28th EU member state, Britain, plans to leave the bloc on January 31 and Prime Minister Boris Johnson is fighting an election campaign on a pro-brexit ticket.

There had been concern in Brussels that Britain’s boycott would hold up the inauguration of the new European Union executive team.

Von der Leyen’s target date for taking office, November 1, has already come and gone, after MEPS rejected her French, Hungarian and Romanian nominees.

But three more names have been put forward to replace them and the nominees are going through parliamentary confirmation hearings.

Von der Leyen now hopes to start on December 1.

ISLAMABAD: A 2015 video in which former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf admitted that Kashmiris were “trained” in in his country as mujahideens to fight the Indian Army in Jammu and Kashmir went viral after it was circulated online again.

The 1 minute 45 seconds video was posted by Hamid Mandokhail from Quetta on Twitter on Tuesday to depict how Pakistan’s state policy of terror destroyed the Pashtuns in Pakistan. Farhatullah Babar, who was the press secretary of former president Asif Ali Zardari, later re-tweeted the video. After Babar re-tweeted the video, several others shared it and commented on it.

In the video, Musharraf said, “Kashmiris who came to Pakistan received a hero’s reception here. We used to train them and support them. We considered them as mujahideens who will fight with the Indian Army. Then, various terrorist organisations like Lashkar-e-taiba rose in this period. They (jihadi terrorists) were our heroes.”

He said in 1979 Pakistan introduced “religious militancy” in Afghanistan to benefit it, and to push the Soviets out of the country. “We brought mujahideens from all over the world, we trained them and supplied weapons to them. We trained the Taliban, sent them in. They were our heroes. Haqqani was our hero. Osama bin Laden was our hero. Ayman al-zawahiri was our hero.”