Former US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad has expressed shock over Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah’s recent “threatening remarks” against PTI chief Imran Khan, terming the statement an incitement to violence.
Taking to Twitter, the former US diplomat said the Pakistani interior minister’s statement that “either Imran Khan exists or we do is shocking and should be rejected by all god-fearing and law-abiding Pakistanis”.
In a recent interview, Sanaullah had said that the country’s political situation has reached the point where the ruling Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) can go to any extent to protect its existence from PTI chief Imran Khan.
“The country’s politics has been brought to the level where the existence of only one of the two [PTI and PML-N] is possible,” the interior minister said in an interview aired on Saturday.
Terming his remarks an incitement to violence against the country’s major political leader, Khalilzad urged Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to publicly disassociate himself from his minister’s comments.
“This mindset is a big reason for Pakistan’s dysfunctionality. If that does not change, the country will continue to be mired in crisis,” he added.
The former US envoy appeared unfazed by Pakistan’s Foreign Office’s repeated warnings against meddling in the country’s internal affairs and continued to issuing statements mainly in favour of the PTI chief.
