UNGA President to Ponder upon the Use of Fake Picture by Pakistan

Pak envoy had held up a picture of an injured Palestinian girl from Gaza claiming that she was a victim from Kashmir

Terming it ‘the face of India’, Lodhi waved about the photo of a young girl whose face was riddled with injuries.

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter/@PakistanUN_NY)

UN General Assembly President Miroslav Lajcak has said that he will "certainly think" about how to deal with erroneous use of pictures.

The use of a fake picture by Pakistan's Permanent Representative Maleeha Lodhi on Saturday while responding to India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj' speech came up during his news conference on Tuesday.

He was asked if he would like to see "some sort of factual baseline" set so that "when people make a mistake they correct it, not in terms of an opinion statement, but the use of a photograph."

I will certainly think about it.

Miroslav Lajcak, UNGA President

However, he prefaced it by indicating that it was a matter of diplomacy and the rights and sensitivities of nations.

"It is not for me to answer. It's for the delegations that are involved. I want to use but not misuse my position as President of the General Assembly," he said.

On Saturday, Lodhi had held up a picture of an injured Palestinian girl from Gaza that had been published two years ago by The New York Times claiming she was a victim from Kashmir.

On Monday, Paulomi Tripathi, a First Secretary in the Indian Mission, told the General Assembly that Pakistan was callously exploiting the image of a Palestinian girl "to divert attention from Pakistan's role as the hub of global terrorism."

In response, Tipu Usman, a counsellor in the Pakistani Mission, claimed that raising the issue of the fake picture had "backfired" on India.

Also Read: Pak Envoy’s Blunder: Passes off Gaza Victim as Kashmiri at UN