ISLAMABAD: Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry on Monday strongly denounced a statement by Afghanistan’s interior minister Amrullah Saleh for “trivializing the threat of ISIS” and said time had come for Afghanistan whether to consider Pakistan as a partner or a scapegoat.

“Decide, if you want Pakistan as a partner or as a scapegoat for your own government’s failures,” the Information Minister wrote at Twitter.

Fawad Chaudhry said the new Afghan interior minister needed a reality check and must not underestimate the threat ISIS was posing to the peace of both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“Trivializing the threat of ISIS is to live in a cuckoo’s land,” he said.

He asked the Afghan Minister “to get real and give up phantom thoughts from a paranoid mind”.

Newly appointed Afghan interior minister, also the former intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh, in his December 21’s pinned tweet had stated that the tiny ISIS was not the real threat and had put the major blame on Pakistan, hinting it as an “enemy”.

Amrullah Saleh, known for his anti-Pakistan rhetoric, earlier had also reacted negatively to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s tweet on Pakistan’s efforts to facilitate talks between the United States and Taliban held this month in the United Arab Emirates for Afghanistan’s peace and reconciliation.

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