Published: 01:00 PM, 07 April 2026
Pakistan faces domestic antinomy over mediating between US and Iran
Politicians, bureaucrats and journalists from both sides of the border took to social media on Friday to criticize comments by India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar about Pakistan's foreign diplomacy, reports Dawn.
India Today reported on Thursday that the foreign minister had said India "cannot act as a 'dalal nation' in global geopolitics", in reference to concerns raised by the opposition over Pakistan mediating talks between the United States and Iran amid the ongoing Middle East conflict.
Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said that Jaishankar thought of himself as "a hi-fi dalal", adding that the remarks "reflect personal frustration".
Pakistan President's Spokesperson Murtaza Solangi ripped into the Indian foreign minister's lack of diplomacy, saying, "He seems to be infected with a self-destructive virus besides a diplomatic dementia, losing everything he had learned in the diplomatic school."
"Fact is that he is a Dalal of Modi who is a Dalal of Netanyahu," he said, adding that Jaishankar's mission to "isolate Pakistan" had ended up isolating India instead.Former caretaker foreign minister Jalil Abbas Jilani said that the use of such language by the external affairs minister of India "reflects a sick mindset".
"Reducing diplomacy to name-calling may serve domestic politics - but it does little for peace," he said.
Former Sindh governor and ex-privatization minister Mohammad Zubair said that he had "never heard a foreign minister stooping so low".
He suggested that the comment reflected India's "frustration at not having any role to play" in the conflict.
Another former Sindh governor, Imran Ismail, said that the comment was "strange coming from someone whose foreign policy often looks like it's constantly for hire".
"India is actually selling their independence to the highest bidder. Do you know what it is called?" he added.
Former power minister Khurram Dastgir Khan called the language used by Jaishankar "reprehensible".
"Pakistan was the nemesis to Hindutva hubris in May 2025 and remains so," he said, alluding to a clash between the two countries last year.
>>Agency
