Reacting to media reports over the delay in the appointment of Sardar Masood Khan as ambassador to the US, Foreign Office spokesperson Asim Iftikhar Ahmad said on Tuesday that India was using fake news to make baseless allegations.

Masood, who served as Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s president till last August, was nominated as ambassador to the US in November. He had previously served as Pakistan’s permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva and New York and as envoy to China.

The US State Department has been taking unusually long to process the agrement of Pakistan’s ambassador-designate to the United States, reported Dawn on Tuesday, while quoting a diplomat. The State Department has, in the past, usually taken four to six weeks to issue agreement for Pakistani ambassadors said a former foreign secretary.

“This is a part of the wider Indian disinformation campaign to malign Pakistan and those who represent Pakistan, by using fake news to make scandalous claims and baseless allegations,” FO spokesperson Iftikhar was quoted as saying in a statement.

He was responding to a question about the reports carried by “Indian media” on the government’s decision to appoint Masood as Pakistan’s envoy to the US.

The official handout read that Ambassador Masood was a “highly accomplished” diplomat with 40 years of experience in both multilateral and bilateral diplomacy. “His Agrement is being processed in the US system.”