Pakistan on Wednesday strongly rejected as groundless, biased and malevolent an American journal's report rating the country at number nine among failed states.
The spokespersons of both Pakistan's Foreign Office and the government moved aggressively to challenge the essence, credibility and the yardstick the authors of the report used to determine and rated a failed state.
A US-based foreign policy journal said in its report on Tuesday that Pakistan had jumped up from 34 position of last year to number nine this year at a list of failed states.
Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasneem Aslam said "Pakistan was astonished over the report." Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani also ridiculed it.
It is not for the first time that Pakistan was termed as a failed state after President Pervez Musharraf took over on October 12, 1999 following a bloodless military coup.
Recently, one of the top Indian leaders had passed similar remarks about Pakistan for its loose control over militant outfits operating in the country and use of military might against its own people in Balochistan province.
Some four years back, a renowned author Stephen P Cohen in his book also termed Pakistan a failed state for not abiding by the ideology that was a motivating force behind the creation of a separate homeland for the Muslims of the Sub-continent.
In her initial reaction to the Foreign Policy report, Tasneem Aslam termed the report meaningless and said Pakistan had very cordial relations with its neighbouring countries.
The spokeswoman added that by publishing such a list, the organisation had lost its credibility.
Declaring it "a joke of the year", Mohammad Ali Durrani Wednesday strongly condemned the list issued by the journal.
"Listing a country with free media, judiciary and rapidly growing economy among failed states is beyond imagination," the minister said.
He added that the very yardstick used for the survey was inauthentic.
Criticising the report, the minister said: "Good governance and real democracy is taking roots, positive policies of the present government have strengthened country's economy and foreign investment is on the rise, how one can say Pakistan is a failed state."
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