The ex-president realises his remarks 'made unwittingly may have caused anguish and regrets it', his spokesman says.

ISLAMABAD: Former president Asif Ali Zardari Saturday regretted his remarks about absconding former SSP Malir Rao Anwar, denouncing extra judicial killings as "abhorrent, criminal and unacceptable", according to a press statement.

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chairman, during an interview with a private news channel on Friday, called Anwar a "brave child" who survived the fight against militant wing of Muttahida Qaumi Movement.

Zardari's spokesman Farhatullah Babar, in a statement issued this evening, said the former spokesman has described his words as "mis-spoken and regretted any offence to anyone", which he also acknowledged during another TV interview on Saturday.

Rao Anwar is the ?brave child? who survived fight against MQM: Zardari

Speaking about the Naqeebullah murder case, Zardari said ?everyone should step back and look at it again

Babar said the PPP co-chairman also denounced extra judicial killings as ?abhorrent, criminal and unacceptable? and called for bringing to justice all those involved in it.

"Enforced disappearances and extra judicial killings are twins of a deepening curse. It is unthinkable that the Pakistan People?s Party would support it in any form or manner," the statement read.

"The party?s record in and out of the parliament is a testimony to it," it said.

The former president realises that his remarks "made unwittingly in the flow of conversation may have caused anguish and has regretted it", the statement added.