 | « Back to article | Print this article |
Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Thursday slammed British Prime Minister David Cameron's warning to Pakistan to sever links with groups that promote the "export of terror", saying such remarks were "totally unacceptable".
Qureshi said Cameron's remarks were "surprising, to say the least" as they came on the heels of three "very successful" visits to Pakistan by senior British leaders and ongoing bilateral cooperation on all issues, including counter-terrorism.
"We take serious exception to any suggestion that falsifies facts and tends to put the entire onus of terrorism on Pakistan. This is totally unacceptable," Qureshi said in a statement issued by the Foreign Office on Thursday evening.
Qureshi pointedly referred to Cameron's remarks made in India on Wednesday and said visits to Pakistan by Britain's Secretary for International Development, Foreign Secretary and chairperson of the ruling Conservative Party had "provided useful opportunities for detailed discussions on all issues of mutual interest, including counter-terrorism".
Pakistan's "achievements and successes against terrorism cannot be negated or belittled by the disclosure of evidently self-serving and skewed reports on WikiLeaks", Qureshi said.
Cameron's remarks also figured in the weekly news briefing at the Foreign Office, with spokesman Abdul Basit saying the comments by the British premier, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and some US officials appeared to be based on disclosures by the website WikiLeaks.
Basit said such a "malicious campaign" against Pakistan has been going on for years but at the official levels in the West, the country's contribution in counter-terrorism had been duly acknowledged.
"Self-serving reports" based on documents disclosed by WikiLeaks cannot belittle whatever Pakistan has achieved over the past few years in its campaign against terror, the spokesman said.
Speaking in Bangalore on Thursday, Cameron warned Pakistan not to have relations with groups that "promote the export of terror". He said he intended to raise the issue with his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh.
Cameron said Britain wants a strong, stable and democratic Pakistan but it "cannot tolerate in any sense the idea that this country is allowed to look both ways and is able, in any way, to promote the export of terror whether to India, whether to Afghanistan or to anywhere else in the world".
He defended his remarks about Pakistan's record on tackling terrorism today, telling the BBC that it was "important to speak frankly" and that while Pakistan had "made progress...we need them to do more" to tackle terrorism.
Cameron reiterated that it was "not acceptable to have those within Pakistan who are supporting terrorist groups that can do so much damage to their own country and to British people whether in Afghanistan or back home in Britain".