KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday criticised United States President Donald Trump’s remarks against Pakistan and “regretted” the way the government had responded to his rhetoric.

The former president said in a television interview after Mr Trump’s speech about his Afghan policy that Pakistan had rendered sacrifices and suffered more than any other country in the war against terrorism.

“We don’t want war with any country,” he said.

“In my government, we even worked with the US government. It was I as president who started dialogue with the US and I told them that this relationship would only work when we would hear each other. But the problem is that they only talk about their problems.”

Mr Zardari said the war against terrorism had destroyed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, leaving thousands of its residents dead and hundreds of thousands homeless, but this “disastrous reality” was never acknowledged by the US.

“In my first speech in the US, I told them that you are losing the war on terror because you are losing the war on mindset. Today it’s turning true. Majority of the area in Afghanistan is controlled by the Taliban and militant groups,” he added.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2017