Islamabad: Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday rejected the statement concerning him released by the National Security Committee (NSC) as “horrible and painful”.
The NSC meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, and also attended by top military leaders had condemned Sharif’s remarks about the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks in an interview with a leading English daily, termed them “incorrect and misleading”.
Speaking at the Accountability Court the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leaders said the statement of the top civilian-military coordination forum was based on a misunderstanding.
Later, talking to media outside the court, Sharif said the time had come to decide who was traitor and who was patriot, reiterating his demand to set up a national commission.
He said having been prime minister three times, he knew a lot of things about the affairs of the country.
“Who has brought the country to this point?,” he asked.
Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has called for an end to a debate that Nawaz Sharif sparked with his controversial remarks about Mumbai attacks.
Expressing his in the National Assembly, he said that Sharif’s remarks were misreported by Indian media.
“Nawaz Sharif didn’t say Mumbai attackers were dispatched from Pakistan. The sentence about non-state actors was misquoted,” he said.
He said Pervez Musharraf, Gen (retd) Pasha, Imran Khan, General (retd) Durrani and Rehman Malik had also discussed the subject of Mumbai terror attacks in the past for which Nawaz Sharif is being criticised.
“Nobody is authorised to issue certificates of patriotism,” he said, and warned against using the issue for political point scoring.
“Do not become India’s facilitators in a matter related to national security. Do not use a national security matter for political purposes,” he said.
“Parliament should form a commission if it is willing to look back into the past,” Abbasi said.
He reiterated that Pakistan would not allow it soil to be used against other countries. “It was and it still remains our policy,” said the premier.
