ISLAMABAD: The meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC) that will scrutinise former PM Nawaz Sharif’s remarks on the 2008 Mumbai attacks is currently underway at the Prime Minister house in Islamabad.
Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi is chairing the meeting that is being attended by Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Zubair Mahmood Hayat and Director General Inter-Services Public Relations Major General Asif Ghafoor.
The Defence and newly appointed Foreign Minister Khurram Dastgir is also present at the high-level meeting.
The army suggested to the Prime Minister to hold the NSC meeting after former premier Nawaz Sharif insinuated that state elements might have been responsible in the violence that gripped Mumbai, India’s financial capital in 2008, and that left nearly 170 people dead.
In an interview to English daily Dawn, Nawaz Sharif 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?”
Indian media was quick to pick up Sharif’s remarks, claiming the former PM had vindicated India’s official stance that Pakistan was involved in the Mumbai attacks.
The PML-N, however, issued a clarification on Sunday that argued that Nawaz Sharif’s remarks were ‘grossly misinterpreted’ by the Indian media.
A party spokesperson claimed that local media was lending ‘credence’ to the Indian media’s ‘malicious’ propaganda.
“Unfortunately, a section of Pakistani electronic and social media has intentionally or unintentionally not only validated but has lent credence to the malicious propaganda of Indian media without going through the full facts of the statement,” he argued.