Hafiz Saeed and Lashkar liability for us : Pak Foreign Minister
"It is very easy to say that Pakistan is supporting Hafiz Saeed and Lashkar-e-Taiba. They are liabilities...we have said they are liabilities... but give us time to get rid of these liabilities because we do not have the assets to match these liabilities," he said while speaking at the Asia Society seminar in New York.
Asif also acknowledged that Pakistan has to continue its efforts in dismantling terrorism and elements of extremism but added that it needs time and "assets" to do the job.
Hafiz Saeed, who lives in Pakistan, has recently launched a political party, saying he would contest elections in 2018.
Hafiz Saeed's party reportedly even fielded a candidate in a by-election for a seat that fell vacant after the disqualification of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif over corruption charges.
Hafiz Saeed has been declared a global terrorist by the UN and the US for his role in the Mumbai attack. He was placed under house arrest earlier this year and it was extended several times, but no formal charges have been filed against him so far.
The Pak Foreign Minister said, by "wrongly" supporting the US in a "proxy war" in Afghanistan against the Soviets in the 1980s, Pakistan paid a very high price.
"Don't blame us for Saeed, these people were your darlings 20 years ago, they were being dined and wined in the White House. Now you say go to hell, Pakistan," said Asif.
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