Rein in Haqqani who claims credit for authoring Trump's policy, Asif tells Zardari

Statement comes hours after a top civil-military huddle rejected US president's remarks against Pakistan

Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif has asked Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari to "rein in" former envoy to the US Hussain Haqqani for "taking credit of US President's new Afghan policy".

"President Zardari, instead of criticising [Pakistani] government, rein in [Hussain] Haqqani, his ambassador to the US, taking credit of authoring US policy President [Donald] Trump announced," Asif said in a tweet on Thursday.

Pres Zardari instead of criticising govt,rein in Haqqani his ambassador to US taking credit of authoring US policy Pres Trump announced

— Khawaja M. Asif (@KhawajaMAsif) August 24, 2017

Haqqani, however, responded promptly, saying "Pakistan FM should deal with the policy instead of trying to bully an exiled Pakistani on twitter."

#Pakistan FM shd deal with the policy instead of trying to bully an exiled Pakistani on twitter https://t.co/Z6Ju4DLRzG

— Husain Haqqani (@husainhaqqani) August 24, 2017

Asif's statement came hours after a top civil-military huddle rejected Trump's remarks wherein he accused Pakistan of harbouring terrorists through "safe havens" in the country. The participants resolved that scapegoating Pakistan won't bring stability in neighbouring Afghanistan.

The former ambassador to the US is not new to controversy. In March this year, he admitted facilitating the stationing of American special operations and intelligence personnel on Pakistani soil and forging links that eventually allowed Washington to carry out the raid in Abbottabad to eliminate Osama bin Laden.

In an opinion piece for The Washington Post, Haqqani had also indicated that while Islamabad was ‘officially kept out of the loop’, the Pakistan People’s Party-led government was aware of both the developments.