Ex-foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Sunday criticized what he described as the coalition government’s lack of response on the joint statement issued by the United States and India which called on Pakistan to crack down on extremists that target New Delhi.
US President Joe Biden laid out a red carpet for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House on Thursday where the two countries sealed major defence and technology deals as Washington bets big on India as a counterweight to China.
In an apparent bid to use the visit to further India’s agenda against Islamabad, a joint statement issued by the two heads of state late on Thursday called on Pakistan to crack down on extremists that target New Delhi. The statement also called for action against extremist groups based in Pakistan.
The Foreign Office (FO) had termed the statement “misleading and unwarranted”, saying that the “reference is contrary to diplomatic norms and has political overtones” while Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said the US president should “consider facts the next time he fetes the butcher of Gujarat”.
Speaking to the media here Multan, Qureshi said that as a former foreign minister he was “pained” to see the joint communique issued after Biden and Modi’s meeting in Washington. “This was a bilateral visit, it is his right. They met [and] they had a discussion. But the joint communique issued after the meeting reading that joint communique as a former foreign minister of Pakistan caused me great pain.”
