Miffed with Pak diplomacy in New York, Saudi Crown Prince recalled his special jet flying Imran Khan: Report

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan reached the US last month on a "special aircraft" of Saudi Crown Prince. 

Dunya News quoting sources said Khan was stopped from using a commercial flight by the Saudi Crown Prince, who said: "You are our special guest and you would be going to the US on my special aircraft."

Before arriving in the US, Khan was on a two-day visit to Saudi Arabia to muster support from the Islamic nation on the Kashmir issue.

In Saudi Arabia, Khan met King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and discussed Kashmir apart from trade, investment and economic relations.

Khan left for New York from Saudi Arabia to participate in the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

After addressing the UNGA on Septemeber 27, Imran Khan boarded the plane to Karachi. However, Pak media reported, Khan's plane had to return midway and was forced to make an emergency landing in New York after it developed a technical glitch.

In an op-ed titled 'Tryst with democracy', magazine's editor and noted Pak journalist Najam Sethi wrote, "Imran Khan has returned from New York a 'conquering hero'. Never mind that he admitted Pakistan's culpability in germinating Al Qaeda. Never mind that he raised the world's hackles by brandishing nuclear weapons and threatening Armageddon. Never mind that the vicious Indian lockdown in Kashmir persists. Never mind that the prospects of Indo-Pak dialogue are dimmer than ever before. Never mind that a territorial state conflict has been relegated to a clash of fierce ideologies representing 'Islamic' Pakistan and 'Hindu' India."

The article further said, "There were some unintended consequences of the trip too. Inexplicably, the Saudi crown prince, Mohammad bin Salman, was so alienated by some dimensions of the Pakistani prime minister's diplomacy in New York - he couldn't have been happy at the prospect of Imran Khan, Recip Tayyib Erdogan and Mahathir Mohammad planning to jointly represent the Islamic bloc, nor with Pakistan's interlocution with Iran without his explicit approval -- that he visibly snubbed Imran by ordering his private jet to disembowel the Pakistani delegation. Significantly, too, Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the UN, Maleeha Lodhi, lost her job (did Khan's cronies have anything to do with it?) before the dust of 'victory at the UN' had settled."

According to report from last month, Imran Khan waited at the New York airport for some time while technicians tried to fix the fault, but more work was required so they decided to extend their stay by one day. 

The next day, they took a commercial flight to fly to Pakistan.