Social media activist and columnist Shama Junejo claims Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif included her in Pakistan’s delegation to the UN as an advisor, as she reacts to the intense backlash on her inclusion, in a post published on X on Sunday.
Backlash Over Alleged Pro-Israel Stance
There had been an uproar on social media regarding her inclusion due to her alleged pro-Israel stance. The controversy had surfaced when photos from the Defence Minister Khwaja Asif’s address at a UN Security Council session on artificial intelligence spread like wildfire on social media platforms, along with her daughter also sharing her pictures from the UNGA sessions.
Photos pointed to Junejo sitting in the background, several of them also shared screenshots from her Twitter timeline from several years ago expressing her support for Israel- a position in conflict with Pakistan’s long-standing pro-Palestinian stance.
Foreign Office and Khwaja Asif Distance Themselves
Following a pandemonium on social media, both Khwaja Asif and the Foreign Office had expressed their lack of knowledge regarding her inclusion in the delegation and evaded taking the responsibility. Asif pinned the responsibility of her inclusion on the Foreign Office. Pakistan’s Foreign Office clarified that she had not been a Pakistan’s accredited delegation.
Junejo Claims Active Role in PM’s Team
While Shama had claimed that she had been writing speeches for PM Shabazz Sharif, the Defence Minister Asif denied Junjeo having written PM Shabazz’s speech for the 80th United Nations General Assembly session. Asif stated that as far as he knew, she did not have any official position, be it of an advisor or special assistant. Junejo claims that she has been working with the Prime Minister of Pakistan for the past many months, in an X post.
“My policy briefs, advice and points during the Pakistan-India escalation are all part of the record and preserved,” she said.
She added, “The prime minister himself assigned me the task of writing his United Nations speech and made me a formal part of the delegation as an adviser. My security pass was also issued accordingly. I worked day and night with his team and travelled with them.”
“I worked with his team day and night. I travelled with him, stayed with his team in the same hotel and was also a part of his important meetings on the sidelines (of the UNGA session), such as the one with Bill Gates,” she said, adding that in another conference on climate on the UNGA sidelines, she was sitting with Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar behind the prime minister.
According to Junejo, following the session on climate, the protocol team took her to the session on AI where she sat behind Khwaja Asif alongside a man she identified as Bilal. In her post, she shared a picture of herself with Asif and Pakistan Crypto Council Chief Executive Officer Bilal Bin Saqib, as well as of a UN card. Janejo maintained that at the AI conference, Bilal continued to write a new speech, and we had a tea together.
“We sat together for 40 minutes waiting for the car, and returned to the hotel together in the same car. Khawaja Asif sahib sat with me on the backseat of the car,” she maintained.
She added, “The prime minister’s historic speech was not written by me alone; it was the product of teamwork and collective effort. My return flight was already booked, and the mission protocol team came to drop me at the airport.”
Read more: Inclusion of alleged pro-Israel Shama Junejo in UNGA stirs tensions in Pakistan
She, however, added that the Prime Minister’s speech was not written by her alone, but it was a team effort and a collective effort. “My return flight was already booked, and the mission protocol team came to drop me at the airport,” she said.
In the end, she said that she doesn’t know why Khawaja Asif is making such irresponsible statements to undermine the historic visit of the government to the UNGA session. She further added that she reserves the right to pursue legal actions against anyone questioning or maligning her professional integrity.
Shama Junejo wrote, “Why is Khawaja Asif making such statements, and under what agenda is he tarnishing his government’s historic visit? The prime minister should ask him, because it is his authority that is being challenged, not mine!”
From GVS South Asia Desk