ALI HUSSAIN

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Office on Wednesday strongly reacted to former US special representative on Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad’s statement about Pakistan’s political situation and reprimanded him that Pakistan does not need lectures from anyone on how to cope with the challenges it faces. “Pakistan does not need lectures or unsolicited advice from anyone on how to cope with the challenges we face today. As a resilient nation we will come out stronger from the present difficult situation,” Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said in response to a media question about Khalilzad’s statement.

In a Twitter statement on Tuesday, the former US special representative for Afghanistan stated that arresting former premier and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan would only “deepen” the crisis in Pakistan and called for setting a date for national elections in early June to avert a “meltdown”. “Pakistan faces a triple crisis: political, economic, and security. Despite great potential, it is underperforming and falling far behind its archrival, India.