Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said in an interview aired on Sunday that Pakistan was doing more than its share in fighting the Frankenstein of terror created jointly by many world powers including the United States.

The foreign minister argued that instead of casting aspersions on Pakistan, its US-led allies should do their share of the burden in the common struggle.

She cautioned against alienating the Pakistani people with “incorrect, biased” statements against the country, which she said have done the most and suffered the most in the struggle against terrorists operating in the Afghan border region.

She also called for more engagement and not disengagement between the US and Pakistan.

“This Frankenstein was not created by Pakistan,” she said.

“This Frankenstein was financed and assisted by many world powers including the US,” she said appearing in CNN’s GPS programme.

Her remarks referred to the US-assisted fight against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, when several international powers worked together to finance, train and equip militants, who later morphed into the Taliban in Afghanistan.

“So while we are left behind to sort out the mess (of the 1980s), as the fear of Pakistanis is that this might happen again (at the end of the ongoing Afghan war), we must not forget the historical evidence that we have which has led us to the place that we have.”

“Let us not try to overly simplify a situation which is very complex,” she told the channel.

Ms Khar took exception to recent statements by now-retired US military leader Mike Mullen, who last week sought to portray the Haqqani network as a “veritable arm” of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

The White House has since then refused to endorse Mullen’s claims made in a Congressional testimony, with President Obama saying there is no clear intelligence on Pakistani complicity with the Afghan militants blamed for attacks on US targets inside Afghanistan, more recently in Kabul.

The foreign minister warned against alienating the Pakistanis by public recrimination, pointing out that her country and its people continue to pay a heavy price in the counter-terror campaign on a daily basis.

“You are alienating the people of Pakistan (by such statements as made by Mullen). You cannot afford to do that. It is 180 million people, whose lives have been harmed, risked and affected as we speak today.”

She urged candid acknowledgement of Pakistani sacrifices, reminding that the country has lost “too many important people, too many ordinary men, women and children” to terrorist bombings.

She cited the tragic case of a Taliban attack on a school bus, which claimed lives of several young students.

“Was Pakistan doing it to itself?”

“You take your responsibility of your share of the burden in creating the Frankenstein, which is haunting both of us, we are willing to share the burden, we are actually more than doing our share of the burden.”

She rejected the notion that Islamabad goes after only those militants, who pose a direct threat to its interests and not after those who target the US or India and Afghanistan.

In this respect, Ms Khar referred to Pakistan’s longstanding cooperation against al-Qaeda militants, who plan to target Western countries including Islamabad’s recent arrest of al-Qaeda’s al-Mauritani in a joint US-Pakistan intelligence operation.

She also argued that the US-Pakistan relationship should not be over-defined by the aid syndrome and cautioned against describing it in transactional terms, saying Pakistan is fighting terrorists for its own sake.

“We need to engage more, rather than disengage,” she remarked.

Ms Khar termed as “incorrect and biased” statements by Mullen that Pakistani security organisations were somehow linked to attacks against US targets in Kabul last month.

She asked Americans to see Pakistan as a worthy partner in the fight. “We need to ensure that as partners we can respect each other’s dignity as sovereign states.”