–PPP’s Senator Khokhar calls PM a ‘national security threat’
–Says if OBL is a ‘martyr’ then what is the status of all those Pakistanis killed in al Qaeda attacks
ISLAMABAD: Opposition parties on Thursday slammed Prime Minister Imran Khan over his speech in the National Assembly in which he referred to slain al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden as “martyred”.
“Imran Khan called Osama bin Laden shaheed. Bin Laden brought terrorism to our lands, he was a terrorist through and through and he [premier] calls him shaheed?” Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) senior leader Khawaja Asif said while addressing the NA session.
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Imran, while speaking about the country’s relations with the US, said that Pakistan had to face a lot of “humiliation” despite supporting Washington in the ‘war on terror’ and was then blamed for the US’s failures in Afghanistan.
Recalling an incident that he said caused “embarrassment” to Pakistan, the premier said: “The Americans came to Abbottabad and killed, martyred Osama bin Laden. When happened after that? The entire world cursed at us and spoke ill of us.”
Following the prime minister’s speech, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar in a statement called Imran a “national security threat”.
“By labelling Osama bin Laden a martyr, Imran Khan has become a national security threat. If he is a martyr, then what is the status of those civilians and members of our armed forces who embraced martyrdom in the attacks by al Qaeda?
“Thousands of civilians and youth were martyred in attacks by al Qaeda,” he said.
Khokhar also questioned the lesson the prime minister was trying to teach the younger generation.
“Today Imran Khan has proven himself to be ‘Taliban Khan’ in parliament. The Imran Khan-Taliban nexus was evident from the meetings between the two.”
This is the same person who had called for the Taliban to open their offices in Pakistan, he said.
Separately, PPP Senator Sherry Rehman said that Pakistan was still a victim of terrorist attacks due to Osama Bin Laden.
“Because of him the country is in such a state and you are presenting him as a hero on the assembly floor?”
She added that Imran’s words will go down in history. “Remember that Osama Bin Laden can be the PM’s hero but not the nation’s. He was and will remain a criminal of the state and the people.”
Osama bin Laden was killed by US special forces who raided his compound in Pakistan in 2011.
Bin Laden was killed by US special forces who raided his compound in Pakistan in 2011.
Prime Minister Imran during his trip to the United States last year had said that Pakistan’s main spy agency provided the US with a lead that helped them find and take out Osama bin Laden.
The prime minister also said that he never felt more humiliated than he did on May 2, 2011 when American commandos took him out without informing Pakistan.
“Never did I feel more humiliated than I did when OBL was taken out in Pakistan,” he said in his speech at the US Institute of Peace (USIP) in Washington. “Here was a country which was an ally, which did not trust us [enough to tell about the raid]. We do not want to be humiliated like this again.”
