PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari/File photo

Pakistan People?s Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has criticised a tweet sent out by US President Donald Trump was ?deeply hurtful to the people of Pakistan.?

Trump, in January, had criticized the US for providing $33 billion in aid to Pakistan over the course of the past 15 years.

?They have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools,? Trump wrote in the tweet. ?They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!?

?President Trump?s tweet, while I understand it reflects some of the emotions of the American people, it was deeply hurtful to the people of Pakistan, particularly those like myself who have lost loved ones in this fight against extremism,? Bilawal told FOX News.

?I feel, unfortunately, I don?t think the president intended to do so, but this tweet sends the wrong message.?

Relations between Pakistan and the US had strained after the former alleged that Pakistan had been supporting the Haqqani militant network, an Afghan insurgent group.

Bilawal also criticised the US for its past alleged support of the Taliban during the war between the Soviet Union and Afghanistan in the 1980s.

?The US government supported the Taliban and the Mujahideen in the Iran war,? Bilawal said. ?They forced the Pakistani state and the government to support these forces. My mother warned the American president, George H. W. Bush, but I don?t want to fight about the past. I want to look forward.?

Bilawal proposes mechanism to resolve Pak-Afghan issues

Bilawal proposed a mutually acceptable verification mechanism to end the blame game between Pakistan and Afghanistan, according to a statement issued by the party.

Addressing scholars and researchers at the Woodrow Wilson think tank in Washington, Bilawal had said such a ?credible? and ?doable? mechanism was a way forward to address concerns about militants crossing borders with impunity that has disrupted peace in the region and tensed relations between the two neighbours.

?Extremists and militants of any persuasion who seek to advance their security and foreign policy agendas are a threat to peace and security and must not be allowed a foothold anywhere,? he had said.

The PPP chief had stressed that the Haqqani network must be dismantled and disarmed, but this could only be done by concerted and coordinated action by both Pakistan and Afghanistan based on a credible and verifiable mechanism, and not by resorting to blame game.

Among a number of topics, Bilawal spoke about the state democracy and human rights, mysterious disappearances, forthcoming general elections in the country, reforms in tribal areas, need for economic revival, and fighting militancy in a holistic manner.

The use of religion as a weapon of war in Afghanistan and turning a blind eye to the emergence of non-state actors in the name of religion was a grave strategic mistake, he had said.

Containing the consequences of disastrous policies of the past called for political will and sincerity of purpose which can come only by making a clean admission of the blunders made, Bilawal had said.

About US President Donald Trump?s tweets, he said these generated heat instead of throwing light on serious foreign policy issues. Important foreign policy issues could not be addressed through tweets, he had remarked.

The interactive session at the Woodrow Wilson institute was attended by former ambassadors, ex-State Department officers, researchers and scholars of peace and security issues in the South Asian region.

Party spokesperson Senator Farhatullah Babar and former senator Akbar Khwaja were also present.