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  • With a foreign minister like Khawaja Asif, who needs enemies?: Imran

    Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chief Imran Khan File photo Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chief Imran Khan

    Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chief Imran Khan took to Twitter on Thursday to criticise Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif over his remarks from a day earlier, saying, "With such a foreign minister, who needs enemies?"

    Asif, who is attending the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly, had said, “Nawaz Sharif paid a political price for peace efforts with India,” during his talk at the Asia Society forum on Tuesday.

    “Sharifs and their cronies are desperate to appease Indo-US lobby and interests as their properties are all stashed away in the West,” said Khan in a tweet.

    The PTI chief also accused the foreign minister of targeting the armed forces as part of PML-N’s alleged Indo-US appeasement.

    Earlier on Tuesday, Asif had asked the US to stop blaming Pakistan for the Haqqani Network and for the Hafiz Saeeds [referring to the head of banned Jamaatud Dawa].

    "These were the people who were your darlings just 20 to 30 years back. They were being dined and wined in the White House and now you say 'go to hell Pakistanis because you are nurturing these people'," he had said.

    Further clarifying Islamabad's position, Asif had said: "It is very easy to say Pakistan is floating the Haqqanis and Hafiz Saeed and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). They are liabilities. I accept that they are liabilities, but give us time to get rid of them because we don't have the assets to match these liabilities and you are increasing them [our liabilities] further."

    Referring to the foreign minister's "ownership of certain militant groups", Imran said, “With such a foreign minister, who needs enemies?”

    Earlier this month, following the BRICS nations' "regional security concern" over the militant groups allegedly based in Pakistan, Asif had acknowledged the existence of such organisations, naming LeT and the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) among the internationally banned outfits operating from within Pakistan.

    Calling for a stronger stance against the banned groups, Asif had said, "We should impose some restrictions on the activities of elements like LeT and JeM, so that we can show the global community that we have put our house in order," he said.

    Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal had also [backed the foreign minister's statement] that "Pakistan needs to bring its house in order".