Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has castigated Pakistani diplomat Irfan Raja for his recent remarks In Dhaka, terming him as a Hawkish diplomat', reports BSS.

A spokesman of the PPP Foreign Liaison Committee in a statement in Lahore on Saturday described Raja's remarks in Bangladesh capital as "unfortunate". according to a message received here yesterday.

"If the controversial statement was made by the diplomat concerned with the approval of his headquarters he has proved the Ignorance of hls superiors about the elementary principles of diplomacy. If. on the other hand, the said official was acting on his own Instincts he was commit ted a grave blunder." the spokesman said.

He said. The Dhaka fiasco has happened in the wake of the Chief Executive's uncalled for refusal lo meet the Prime Minister of Ban gladcsh twice in the recent past."

The hawkish diplomat in Dhaka may have been encour aged by the example set by his own head of government to use

undiplomatic language." he added.

The PPP statement menUoned that the latest lesson from Dhaka Is that the Pakistani government badly needs to train its diplomats in the fine art of diplomacy. On the other hand, It should take the Alliance for Restoration .of Democracy a combine of 18 political parties in Pakistan, into the confidence on foreign policy Issues, ft added.

Foreign policy is a political phenomenon which can not be left exclusively in the hands of civil and military bureaucracy, it staled.

The Pakistani newspapers further quoting the PPP statement said that an unavoidable indiscretion which strains relations with a foreign country can not be dismissed lightly.

Irfan Raja on return to Islamabad should be required lo explain the circumstances that prompted him to cross the limits of his decorum without the slightest regards to the sensibilities of hls hosts, ihe statement mentioned.