KABUL: Former leader of Pakistan’s Jamaat-e-Islami, Siraj-ul-Haq, has dismissed recent remarks by Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif as “irresponsible,” saying they should not be taken seriously.
In an interview with a local media outlet, Siraj-ul-Haq said Khawaja Asif “mocks his own people” and lacks consistency in his statements. “He says one thing in the morning and something entirely different in the evening,” he said.
Siraj-ul-Haq was referring to Khawaja Asif’s recent comments in which he reportedly claimed that the former Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan did not take place and that the resistance against it could not be described as “jihad.” Siraj-ul-Haq said those remarks were contrary to historical reality.
He added that at the time of the Soviet intervention, Khawaja Asif’s father was a member of Pakistan’s central council and had taken the position that Soviet forces should be stopped beyond Torkham.
Siraj-ul-Haq stressed that such statements reflect Khawaja Asif’s personal views and urged the media and the public not to treat them as official or credible positions of the state of Pakistan.