Sharif terms NSC statement as ‘painful, regrettable’
islamabad — Ousted prime mi niter Nawaz Sharif has “rejected” the National Security Committee’s (NSC) statement and termed it “painful and regrettable”.
While speaking to reporters at the accountability court in Islamabd on Tuesday, he stuck to his stance on the remarks regarding the Mumbai attacks made during an exclusive interview with Dawn published on Saturday in which he had said: “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?”
Soon after the publication of Sharif’s interview, Indian media termed it an admission on part of the former prime minister that non-state actors from Pakistan were involved in the Mumbai attacks in which militants had killed more than 150 people and injured over 300 in about a dozen shooting and bombing attacks in different localities. The NSC, after a meeting on Monday, had issued a statement saying: “The participants 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 participants unanimously rejected the allegations and condemned the fallacious assertions.” The NSC statement did not name Sharif while addressing the issue around the ‘misleading’ comments about Mumbai attack. Soon after the NSC meeting, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi clarified that the NSC had in fact condemned “misreporting” and not his party’s supreme leader’s statement.
Sharif, meanwhile, has reiterated his demand for the formation of a national commission to decide who committed treason and said that it would allow all facts to become clear.
“A decision should be made about who is a patriot and who is a traitor,” he added. — Agencies