ISLAMABAD, (Raja Furqan Ahmed) : Foreign Office (FO) on Wednesday termed former US special envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad’s statement over the country’s ongoing political situation “an intervention to the country’s internal affairs”. The FO Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said Khalilzad’s statement was misleading. “Pakistan does not need anyone’s lecture or advice to address the ongoing challenges and she will come out stronger of the tough situation”, the FO added. Earlier, Khalilzad had warned that Imran Khan’s arrest would deepen the crisis being faced by Pakistan. Taking to Twitter, Khalilzad pointed out that Pakistan was facing a triple crisis – political, economic and security. “Pakistan faces a triple crisis: political, economic, and security. Despite great potential, it is underperforming and falling far behind its archrival, India. It is time for serious soul-searching, bold thinking, and strategising,” he said. “The sequential cannibalising of its (Pakistan’s) leaders through jailing, execution, assassination, etc is the wrong path,” Khalilzad said, adding that arresting PTI chief Imran would only “deepen the crisis”. He proposed “two steps” to deal with the country’s challenges, the first being to set a date for general elections in early June to “avert a meltdown”. Secondly, he called for using this time for the main political parties to “confront what has gone wrong and propose a specific plan to rescue and put the country on a path to stability, security, and prosperity”. “Whichever party wins the election will have a mandate from the people on what must be done,” he said.
