Foreign Office Spokesperson Zahid Hafiz Chaudhri said that Pakistan hopes that all parties in Myanmar will exercise restraint, uphold the rule of law, engage constructively and work towards a peaceful outcome.
Earlier in the day, Myanmar’s military seized power in a coup against the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, who was detained along with other leaders of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party in early morning raids.
The army said it has carried out the detentions in response to “election fraud”, handing power to military chief Min Aung Hlaing and imposing a state of emergency for one year, according to a statement on a military-owned television station.
Phone lines to the capital Naypyidaw and the main commercial centre of Yangon were not reachable, and state TV went off air hours before parliament had been due to sit for the first time since the NLD’s landslide election win in November, viewed as a referendum on Suu Kyi’s fledgling democratic government. TLTP