NEW YORK: Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar late Tuesday said that whoever calls the Haqqani network “an asset for Pakistan” did not represent the Pakistani government, a report from BBC Urdu said.

She further said that army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani did not hold such opinions in the present circumstances.

The foreign minister was addressing a discussion titled “Pakistan’s Democratic Journey” held by Asia Society, a renowned think-tank, in New York on Tuesday evening. The discussion was moderated by a political columnist of Time, a weekly magazine in the United States.

The moderator asked Khar about an interview given by General Kayani to the New York Times four years ago in which he allegedly stated that he considered the Haqqani network an “asset” for Pakistan.

In response, Khar she did not know who had said it, adding that whoever calls the Haqqani network an asset to Pakistan could not be a representative of the Pakistani government.

She further said that General Kayani no longer held that opinion.