New Delhi: In a major embarrassment for the Pakistan Government, the country's former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday said that captured Mumbai attacker Ajmal Kasab was indeed a Pakistani.
Sharif also slammed the alleged cover up at Faridkot, the village that Kasab hails from, advising President Asif Ali Zardari to come clean and investigate terror links thoroughly.
“They cordoned off Kasab’s village Faridkot. His parents weren’t allowed to meet anyone. What was the need for all this? We have to put our house in order,” Sharif said.
Sharif argued that instead of going to the UN Security Council over the Mumbai attacks, India should have shared intelligence with Pakistan.
But his fulminations are less about India and more about Asif Zardari. Pakistan has become ungovernable is his point .. the whole world is ganging up against Pakistan ..
He virtually accused the government of blackmail, claiming they asked him to give up his demand for restoration of the judges in which case he and his brother would get a favourable ruling on their disqualification from standing for election. However, it's an accusation the government denies.
“We don’t want a war of words,” Pakistan Information Minister Sherry Rehman said.
But Sharif's attack on Zardari couldn't have been timed better. The President's successive U-turns on Ajmal Kasab have reinforced the impression he's not in control, that the military intelligence establishment is asserting itself determined not to give an inch to India.
Delhi though is still waiting, hoping Islamabad will seize the opportunity to make a break with the past or perhaps waiting for the UN sanctions committee to determine whether Pakistan is in compliance with the Security Council resolution or defiance of it.
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