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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif challenged his detractors on Monday to form a “national commission” to scrutinize his recent statement on the 2008 Mumbai attacks. He said the same authority should also assemble those who are calling him a traitor so the people of Pakistan can determine who is right and wrong.
Addressing a public rally in Buner, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he said: “Whoever is found guilty, hang him publicly.”
Sharif also questioned why there was no accountability for the generals who overthrew democratically elected governments, while politicians who worked for the country and its people were labeled as traitors.
Earlier in the day, Pakistan’s National Security Committee (NSC), the country’s top civil-military body, held a meeting during which it described the former premier’s statement regarding the Mumbai attacks as “incorrect and misleading.”
In an interview published in Dawn newspaper on Saturday, Sharif questioned the role of militant organizations based in Pakistan in cross-border terrorism. This was interpreted by the Indian media as an admission of Pakistan’s involvement in the Mumbai attacks.
“Militant organizations are active,” Sharif said in the interview. “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?”
After the NSC session, at Prime Minister’s House, the government said: “The meeting reviewed the recent statement in the context of Mumbai attacks, as it appeared in the Daily Dawn of May 12, 2018, and unanimously termed this statement as incorrect and misleading.
“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 at the meeting also “unanimously rejected the allegations and condemned the fallacious assertions.”
Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi chaired the session, which was also attended by all three services chiefs, including Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa and Director-General Inter-Services Intelligence Lt. Gen Naveed Mukhtar, and other senior civil and military officials.
The meeting, however, also accused India of delays in finalizing the cases against alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba’s militants who attacked targets in Mumbai in November 2008.
“Besides many other refusals (by India) during the investigation, the denial of access to the principal accused, Ajmal Qasab, and his extraordinarily hurried execution became the core impediment in the finalization of the trial (here in Pakistan),” the government said.
Pakistan’s main opposition parties, including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and the Pakistan People’s Party, have also criticized Sharif for his “irresponsible” statement and demanded a retraction.
However, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said that the former prime minister’s rivals were targeting him for political gain ahead of the general elections.
“One general comes into power and creates ‘mujahideen;’ the other takes over power and declares them terrorists,” he said, adding that such political antics could not be tolerated in the country any longer.