Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, on Wednesday issued a rebuttal to the letter written to him by Abdul Basit, the former ambassador to India, calling it "disgusting".

Chaudhry told journalists that Basit's letter, which had been making rounds on social media since Monday night, was “too rude and uncalled for”.

Basit in his letter addressed to Chaudhry, dated July 5, 2017, lambasted the latter's tenure as foreign secretary apparently over a number of foreign policy gaffes made during his time in the office.

“He [Basit] wrongly thinks that he could not reach the post of foreign secretary because of me — he has since retired,” Chaudhry said in his response which was emailed to journalists.

“I have served my country to the best of my abilities. Some of us like Basit fail to realise that life is a combination of human endeavour and fate. We have to accept in humility what life gives us and then thank the Creator for that,” the envoy to US was quoted as saying. "Jealousy has no remedy."

Chaudhry said that after the letter became public, many colleagues expressed their support and friendship to him. "Now that the letter is on social media, I thought I should share with you my sense of disappointment at being targeted like that."

The Association of Former Ambassadors in a message to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) took notice of the "unfortunate episode", saying that it appeared to have been prompted by "personal differences between two officers of the Foreign Services".

The association expressed solidarity with the MoFA and were "confident that this episode will not detract... the Foreign Office from your primary responsibility".

Basit, in his letter, had called Chaudhry "the worst foreign secretary ever". Sources in the Foreign Office had confirmed to DawnNews that the letter was authentic.

The former envoy to India, who was replaced after opting for an early retirement earlier this month by Sohail Mahmood, had written the acerbic letter in response to Chaudhry's farewell letter which he wrote after being appointed the ambassador to United States.

Basit had also expressed concern in his letter that Chaudhry would end up being "the worst Pakistan Ambassador in Washington D.C".