Pakistan has snubbed the U.S. over its demands to investigate alleged irregularities in last month's national elections.
Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, the spokeswoman for Pakistan's Foreign Office, insisted that no country in the world could tell the South Asian nation how to decide its internal affairs, as it is a sovereign state.
"We believe in our own sovereign right to make decisions about Pakistan's internal affairs," Baloch said in response to media questions about alleged election irregularities raised by her U.S. counterpart in Washington during her press conference in Islamabad.
Late last month, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller demanded that Pakistan investigate allegations of interference in its elections.
"With respect to investigations of reported irregularities, we want to see those investigations move forward ... [and] be completed as quickly as possible," Miller said.
In addition to the U.S., the country's main opposition party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), led by detained Prime Minister Imran Khan, has alleged that the general elections were rigged in favor of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Nawaz Sharif, who was backed by the Islamic nation's all-powerful army.
The PTI is holding nationwide protests on Saturday over the issue.