ISLAMABAD – Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has expressed his reservations regarding the statement issued by National Security Committee comprising his successor Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, over the Mumbai attacks.
According to well-placed sources, Sharif expressed his annoyance when PM Abbasi met him on Monday to take the former premier into confidence regarding the communique that was to be issued by high-profile NSC.
“Sharif could not digest the fact that the NSC meeting was held under the chair of one of his close confidantes [including PM Abbasi] and that very meeting condemned his statement,” said a source, quoted by the Express Tribune.
Even in the meeting held at the Punjab House on Wednesday, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Chief Minister Punjab Shehbaz Sharif advised the supreme leader of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz to tone down his stance against the military establishment.
However, the insiders of PML-N claim that Sharif was defiant in his commentary and both the chief executives failed to cajole their leader.
The younger Sharif was also displeased at the statement of Nawaz Sharif in which he had rejected the press release of NSC and wanted it to be removed from the official social media handles of PML-N.
However, the statements are still carried by the pages, believed to be managed by Maryam Nawaz, the daughter of Nawaz Sharif.
“Yesterday’s declaration is totally wrong and I reject it. I am not only a Pakistani citizen but the people of Pakistan also made me the prime minister of this country. Time has come to find out who took this country to where it is today,” the statement quoted Sharif as saying on Tuesday.
Sources claim that despite repeated efforts by Abbasi and Shehbaz Sharif, the former premier seemed uninterested in mending ties with the state institutions, for which the younger Sharif is striving hard.
The PML-N’s parliamentary meeting has also aggravated the situation instead of defusing tension as sources claim that no motion was passed by the participants to throw weight behind the ousted premier.
The party sources said that the meeting between the prime minister, Punjab chief minister and the ex-prime minister was held after the PML-N’s parliamentary party and Sharif expressed displeasure that the parliamentary party did not provide succour to him in an appropriate manner.
What’s the Controversy?
The NSC meeting was called days after former premier, Nawaz Sharif delivered a statement that was spun by the Indian media as a tacit admission of Pakistan’s involvement in the 2008 attacks that left 166 people dead.
Sharif, who has been disqualified to hold public office for life by the Supreme Court in the Panama Papers case, in an exclusive interview with Dawn slammed the slow probe and questioned the authorities who allowed the Mumbai attacks ‘to take place from Pakistan soil’.
“Militant organisations are active. Call them non-state actors, should we allow them to cross the border and kill 150 people in Mumbai? Explain it to me. Why can’t we complete the trial?” Sharif had asked in the interview.
Criticising the country’s foreign policy, Sharif had added: “We have isolated ourselves. Despite giving sacrifices, our narrative is not being accepted. Afghanistan’s narrative is being accepted, but ours is not. We must look into it.”
Soon after the statement, Indian media outlets gave a twist to the story and started portraying Pakistan in a bad light, out of context.
Nawaz’s remarks being twisted out of context: Shehbaz
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz President Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday said that Nawaz’s interview was twisted out of context by his political opponents.
In his address at a public rally in Sindhri, the Punjab chief minister said that India is conspiring against Pakistan by using Afghan soil.
“Our mothers and sisters are being killed in Kashmir. Almighty has made Pakistan a nuclear state. If India casts an evil eye upon Pakistan then the army and people of Pakistan will give a befitting reply,” he said.
NSC Response
The country’s top security body on Monday unanimously rejected the allegations and condemned the fallacious assertions stemming out of a recent statement regarding Mumbai attacks, terming it ‘incorrect and misleading’.
The participants of the high-profile meeting, under the chair of Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, observed that it was very unfortunate that the opinion arising out of either misconceptions or grievances was being presented in disregard of concrete facts and realities.
The NSC meeting was called on the suggestion of Pakistan Army days after former premier, Nawaz Sharif delivered a statement that was spun by the Indian media as a tacit admission of Pakistan’s involvement in the 2008 attacks that left 166 people dead.
Nawaz Stands His Ground
Though PM Abbasi struck a cautious note in his National Assembly address, blaming Indian media for misinterpreting the statement, his boss, Nawaz Sharif is standing his ground over the commentary regarding Mumbai attacks.
Talking to newsmen outside the accountability court in Islamabad on Tuesday, the supreme leader of ruling PML-N rejected the response of country’s top security committee on the issue.
The former lawmaker termed the NSC response as worrisome and frightening, adding that it was based on the misunderstanding and lacked facts.
The world has abandoned Pakistan as there is no any country standing along it, Sharif lamented, adding, “We [Pakistan] are isolated internationally”. He reiterated his demand of forming a commission to probe his remarks.
