Pakistan not being isolated internationally; stands on the right side: Aziz

KARACHI: Pakistan has not been isolated internationally and it stands on the right side keeping in view the kind of alliances being forged in the world today, said a key adviser to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday.

"The perception that Pakistan is being isolated internationally is wrong. It stands on the right side given the alliances being forged in the world today," said Sartaj Aziz, Adviser to PM on Foreign Affairs, in an interview to British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

Kerry's statement in New Delhi

Reacting to US Secretary of State John Kerry's recent statement in India, he denied that those statements were defaming Pakistan. While in India, Kerry would state something, yet in Pakistan his statement would be different from what he would have said during his visit to New Delhi, he said.

The key aide to Premier Sharif maintained that Pakistan took indiscriminate action against all militant groups including the Haqqani Network. "We achieved in three years in the war on terror, what the no one in world could," he said, noting that Pakistan imposed restrictions on Hafiz Saeed and Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi.

He said the United States is acting on its policy to contain China's growing influence in the region and this is why the US-India cooperation has increased in recent times.

Earlier on Tuesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry said that Pakistan needs to join other nations in fighting terrorists within its borders.

Addressing a news conference in New Delhi, Kerry denounced terrorism in all its forms. He said the perpetrators of attacks on Indian soil - in Mumbai in 2008 and at an airbase in Punjab last January - should be brought to justice.

"We cannot and will not make distinctions between good and bad terrorists," Kerry said. "Terror is terror no matter where it comes from, (or) who carries it out."

Kashmir issue

Aziz, however, lamented that no one in the world including the United States condemned Indian atrocities in occupied Kashmir. "It is disappointing to see the world only expressing concerns over brutalities in Kashmir, instead of denouncing them," he regretted.

"The Kashmir issue is to be resolved by the people of Kashmir, not the world, and that those who can willingly shed their blood for a just cause can't be subdued by any power," he asserted.