FAZAL SHER

ISLAMABAD: Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif Monday said that he will stick to his statement that he had made about the Mumbai attacks no matter what the consequences will be.

Sharif was talking to reporters here inside the Accountability Court, hearing corruption cases against him and his family members, about his remarks on the Mumbai attacks. After reading out the excerpts from his interview carried by Dawn, Sharif asked reporters, “What is wrong in my statement?”

“I said what had been earlier confirmed by General Pervez Musharraf, the then National Security Advisor Major-General Asad Durrani and the then Interior Minister Rehman Malik,” he elaborated.

He said why the trial of the Mumbai attacks in Pakistan has not been completed so far. “We have sufficient evidence regarding the Mumbai attacks. This is the reason the world does not accept our narrative despite the fact that we’ve lost over 50,000 precious lives, including civilians and personnel of armed forces and police, in the war against terrorism,” he further said.

Sharif said that he had asked a question and there is a need to reply to it as a few people had earlier accepted this fact. “Those who ask questions are being described as traitors. I who conducted the nuclear tests am being labelled as a traitor,” the former prime minister added.

The former prime minister said, “We have been labeled as traitors in media. But I will continue to speak the truth no matter what I have to bear. I consider speaking truth my national, moral and religious responsibility.”

Replying to a question, Sharif said that Kulbhushan Jadhav is an Indian spy who was arrested in Pakistan for his involvement in espionage and sabotage activities in Karachi and Balochistan.