Pakistan on Friday said Afghanistan should properly check its facts before making allegations that a plot to kill Afghan President Hamid Karzai was hatched on its soil.
The Afghan intelligence agency said on Thursday that it had thwarted a plot to assassinate Karzai by arresting a bodyguard and five persons with links to the Haqqani network and the Al Qaeda.
Officials said the plot had its origins in Pakistan's Waziristan tribal region.
Foreign Office spokesperson Tehmina Janjua rejected the allegations during a weekly news briefing.
Asked about the accusations, she said, "Before making any irresponsible statements linking anyone to any particular place, it is important that we have the facts right and we should not fall prey to what has been given out without making sure that the facts are correct."
Pakistan has also rejected Afghanistan's allegations that the Inter Services Intelligence agency was behind the assassination of former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani by a suicide bomber on September 20.
"At this defining stage when challenges have multiplied as well as the opportunities, it is our expectation that everyone, especially those in a position of authority in Afghanistan, will demonstrate requisite maturity and responsibility," Janjua said.
"This is no time for point-scoring, playing politics or grandstanding," she added.
Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan have been tense over allegations that the ISI has links with the Haqqani network, which operates from bases in Pakistan's tribal belt.
US officials too have accused the ISI of supporting an attack by the Haqqani network on the US embassy in Kabul in September.
Janjua said Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had offered Pakistan's help in investigating Rabbani's assassination when he visited Kabul to offer his condolences to the slain leader's family and the Afghan leadership.
"Pakistan is ready to provide any kind of assistance that is requested by Afghanistan. This assistance would obviously be based on whatever evidence is provided to Pakistan," she said.
Islamabad has so far received from Kabul the confessional statement of an Afghan national arrested in connection with the assassination, Janjua said.
The material provided by the Afghan government is being examined by Pakistani authorities, she added.
