Daily Times

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi strongly condemned Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar’s statement after the departure of Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, stating that it was against diplomatic etiquette to ridicule the Pakistani foreign minister.

“Although I disagree with Bilawal, I am talking about the foreign minister of Pakistan,” he said while speaking to the media in Multan. “Bilawal Bhutto went there on the invitation of the Indian foreign minister and Pakistan is a member of this forum; Bilawal was his guest, but he ridiculed the Pakistani foreign minister.”

His behaviour was against diplomatic etiquette as he linked Pakistan with terrorism, Qureshi said.

“What justification did you have to link Pakistan with terrorism and call yourself a victim?” he asked.

“There was no justification for it; this may be his own thinking, but it is not; not only Pakistan but also Kashmiris condemned the statement of the Indian foreign minister,” he remarked.

“Bilawal went there because of SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation), Iran also participated for the first time,” he pointed out. “Before Bilawal goes to India, there is a debate about whether he should go there or not; there is Hindutva thinking there, so it is useless to go there, while the second thought was that we are members and should go there for better relations; we went there.”

“Our experienced diplomats should have given Bilawal advice on what should his reaction be if they would raise bilateral issues on the platform of SCO,” he added. “Mr Jaishankar, you are hiding your eyes from the facts,” he slammed the Indian FM, adding that as a result of terrorism, Pakistan has lost more than 80,000 people and billions of dollars.

“Before pointing fingers at Pakistan, you have to look within yourself; you have to look at your neck,” he added.

He also said that the conditions in occupied Kashmir are getting worse. The situation of occupied Kashmir should be seen in the context of August 5, 2020, since this was an “unconstitutional and illegal move”, he added.

“The world is seeing the true face of India; we have exposed India before,” Qureshi said, asking what was Kulbhushan Yadav doing in Balochistan.

He wondered whether he was on a goodwill visit to Pakistan, or whether he was serving officer caught spying and inciting terrorism in Pakistan.

“This world knows what issue they are working on; India is using it as a shield,” he said. Regarding political issues, the PTI leader wondered that if the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has decided to “sacrifice” Shahbaz Sharif, what can they do about it. “Respect the decision of the court and conduct the election and do not sacrifice before Eidul Adha,” he said.