Khawaja Asif defended the case of Pakistan in Asia Society Forum on Tuesday and said that Haqqani network and other jihadis are called terrorist today while they were darling of USA just few years ago.
He rejected the USA policy of blaming Pakistan for the crisis which started because of US foreign policy. Khawaja Asif said that these people are liabilities on Pakistan but Pakistan don’t have the assets to deal with them. He said:
“Don’t blame us for the Haqqanis [the Haqqani Network] and don’t blame us 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.”
USA President Donald Trump recently criticized Pakistan and threatened to stop the funds. He claimed that Pakistan is taking funds from USA & is nurturing militants, Pakistan rejected the allegations.