MULTAN: Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto said here today [June 15] that Pakistan had to be watchful lest Mrs Indira Gandhi, bedevilled and bewildered by the present crisis, seeks to extricate herself from this mess by embarking upon an adventurist course against Pakistan. Commenting on Mrs Indira Gandhi’s reported remarks that recent developments in India have brought the greatest happiness to Pakistan, [PM] Bhutto in a Press statement said, she seems to be either grossly misinformed or is raising a smoke-screen to cover the realities of India’s present crisis.

“India’s present problems … are of her own making”. The [PM] said: “To try to involve Pakistan in them is a crude, diversionary manoeuvre that is bound to fail. The people of India cannot be so naive or innocent as to be misled by such stratagems.” These are hoary tactics and they are doomed to miscarry, he emphasised. … …“[W]hat makes her remarks more painful is that not one word has been uttered by any official spokesman or agency in Pakistan on recent developments in India. We do not gloat over the predicaments of others. … Pakistan subscribes to the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other States.”

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2025