Pakistanis Are Shook After Shireen Mazari’s Mean Tweet To U.S. Official, Zalmay Khalilzad

The last few months have seen government officials, cabinet ministers and generally all sorts of high profile Pakistanis engaging in one Twitter brawl after the other.

From State Minister Shireen Mazari and pop sweetheart Momina Mustehsan arguing over Ko Ko Korina to Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj exchanging heated words, Twitter, in Pakistan seems to have seen it all this year!

Read: DG ISPR Asif Ghafoor and Marvi Sirmed Had A Twitter Row & We’re Going To Facepalm For The Rest Of The Day

And now, adding to this ever-growing list is yet another contribution by the Minister of State for Human Rights, Shireen Mazarai, who picked some seriously unnecessary beef with U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad on Tuesday.

Who’s Zalmay Khalilzad, again?

Khalilzad is the U.S. Special Representative for the Afghanistan reconciliation process. He is leading the U.S. government’s effort to facilitate dialogue and negotiations to effectuate peace in Afghanistan.

Read: Of Donald Trump, Twitter And The ‘Do More’ Mantra

On another note, he has never really been in the good books of Pakistan as his overall dealing with the country has been seen as bias and devoid of objectivity.

Oh, so it’s alright if Trump posts mean tweets about Pakistan but it’s not alright for us to fire back?

It is true that the United State’s posture towards Pakistan has been anything but friendly this whole year. Trump has had two episodes of extreme verbal diarrhea where he bashed Pakistan over his country’s failure’s in Afghanistan and the US government on the whole has been keeping up with its “do-more” mantra.

Read: After PM Imran Khan, US Citizens Also Clap Back At Donald Trump’s Anti-Pakistan Tweets

That said, since Zalmay Khalilzad is scheduled to have high profile meetings with government officials in Pakistan on Tuesday, it would have been best to start the conversation on a restrained – if not positive – note. A mean tweet sent to the U.S. Special Representative from a Pakistani State Minister just before his arrival for talks is not exactly what A-class diplomacy is made of.

Mazari’s tweet is especially unwise since it uses a very personalized tone to attack the U.S. official and hints at him having malicious intentions.

What did the tweets say?

Tweeting about his 18-day tour to Asia, Zalmay Khalilzad had said, “And I’m off again: Pakistan, Afghanistan, Russia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Belgium, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. Watch this space for updates on our efforts to support & facilitate an inclusive peace process in Afghanistan.”

To this the Human Rights Minister sent out a scathing tweet that read, “This time perhaps you shd bring a less arrogant and hostile mindset when you visit Islamabad!”

This time perhaps you shd bring a less arrogant and hostile mindset when you visit Islamabad! https://t.co/T4Y9xBgVxq

— Shireen Mazari (@ShireenMazari1) December 4, 2018

It seems, we weren’t the only Pakistanis shocked to see Shireen Mazari’s mean tweet to U.S. Official Zalmay Khalilzad. A number of netizens cautioned her to be more responsible while sending out tweets to foreign officials and diplomats.

https://twitter.com/abdulhananPTI/status/1069852518203695104

https://twitter.com/mnabeelPakistan/status/1069853821269086210

This reflects very rash on the part of Pakistan government considering the fact that you hold an important ministry and position in cabinet madam minister!

— Muhammad Imran (@Dir_khan) December 4, 2018

And maybe you can start to focus on the pathetic human rights conditions in the country (which is your responsibility) instead of focusing on messing up our foreign policy

— Araj Raza (@ArajRaza) December 4, 2018

Unprovoked and unnecessary. Also, it's not your ministry. Not your domain.

— Enkidu (@Fallibilist1) December 4, 2018

Madam Minister, while we have no doubts in our mind about your sense of patriotism and love for Pakistan, we do feel that you made an absolute boo-boo by sending out this mean tweet to Khalilzad. It would have been best had the correspondence – through Twitter or otherwise (ideally NOT through Twitter) – been left to the Foreign Office.

As Tariq Aziz would say…