Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa was perspiring and his “legs were shaking” as Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said during a meeting that if Indian Air Force Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was not released, India would attack Pakistan at 9 PM , a top Opposition leader has said.
Recalling the tension in Islamabad after India bombed a training camp in Pakistan’s Balakot on February 26, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Sardar Ayaz Sadiq criticised the Imran Khan government over its response, saying that the Opposition has supported the government on every issue, including Kashmir and Varthaman, but it will no longer be appropriate to provide any further support, Dunya News reported on Wednesday.
Sadiq, who was the Speaker of the National Assembly during the PML-N government, made a similar statement earlier on Wednesday in Parliament that Foreign Minister Qureshi had said in an important meeting that if Varthaman was not released, India would attack Pakistan at 9 PM that night and for God’s sake we should let him go.
The 37-year-old IAF pilot was captured by the Pakistani Army on February 27 after his MiG-21 Bison jet was shot down in a dogfight with Pakistani jets during aerial combat.
In the early hours of February 26, 2019, the IAF jets bombed the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) camps in Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa of Pakistan and avenged the Pulwama attack that claimed the lives of 40 CRPF personnel.
Sadiq further claimed that the Foreign Minister had said this in a meeting between parliamentary leaders, including those of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and PML-N, and Army chief General Bajwa whose legs were shaking and he was perspiring, the report said.
He said this without mentioning the date of the meeting.
Sadiq said that he tries not to make any personal attacks but when those in power refer to us as thieves or Modi ka yaar (Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pal), we will have to respond .
He also said that those running the government were not serious people.
The rulers don’t even know the rules of Parliament, he said.
Sadiq said that the Opposition has supported the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan on every issue, including Kashmir and Varthaman, but it will no longer be appropriate to provide any further support, according to the Dunya TV report.