ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif said on Monday that he is not the first one to have accepted these facts.



He was referring to his recent statement in an interview regarding role of Pakistan-based non-state actors in the Mumbai attacks.

“I had asked a question. I need an answer,” Nawaz said while interacting with reporters inside the accountability court hearing corruption cases against him.

The three-time prime minister deplored that this is the reason the world does not hear Pakistan’s stance and stated that it is important to ask why that is.

Nawaz regretted that those who ask questions are being termed traitors in the media. “He who conducted atomic tests is being called a traitor,” said the former premier.

"Will speak the truth no matter what the consequences," he said, and then read his statement from the interview from his mobile phone to reinforce his point.



Nawaz added that the armed forces, civilians and police have given tremendous sacrifices.

Nawaz's remarks on the controversy do not conform to the stance taken by his party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, whose president and Nawaz's brother Shehbaz Sharif said on Sunday that the party "rejects all claims made in the report, be they direct or indirect".

"The remarks in Dawn's report, attributed to PML-N's Quaid Nawaz Sharif in a wrong manner, are not representative of the party policy," said Shehbaz, also the chief minister of Punjab.

"We fully believe that the interests of Pakistan are on a priority higher than any personal and political ones," he said on Twitter.



"Pakistan's national interests can and will never be compromised!"



Meanwhile, a National Security Committee (NSC) meeting categorically dismissed former premier Nawaz Sharif's recent statement on the 2008 Mumbai attacks and unanimously termed it "incorrect and misleading".

The NSC, which met under the chair of Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Monday, conducted a detailed review of Nawaz's statement printed in a newspaper interview on Saturday.

However, after the NSC meeting the prime met with Nawaz Sharif who clarified to PM Abbasi that his recent statement regarding the Mumbai attacks was misreported by the media.

According to Abbasi, who spoke with senior journalists after the National Security Committee (NSC) meeting, Nawaz said that his interview with Dawn Newspaper was misreported and he did not say all that was attributed to him.



