ISLAMABAD, MAY 14 (DNA) – A crucial meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC), the country’s top civil-military body, was held today to discuss the situation arising out of ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif ’s remarks about alleged Pakistan’s role in the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi presided over the meeting in Islamabad.

Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Zubair Mahmood Hayat, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi,  Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Mujahid Anwar Khan, Director General ISI Lieutenant Generl Naveed Mukhtar and senior civil as well military officials attended the meeting.

According to a statement issued after the meeting, the Committee unanimously condemned and rejected the recent statement of the former premier.

The top civil-military body clarified India is responsible for a probe into the Mumbai attacks, and not Pakistan.

“NSC meeting suggested to Prime Minister (Shahid Khaqan Abbasi) to discuss recent misleading media statement regarding Bombay incident. Being held tomorrow morning,” said Director General Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor in a tweet on Sunday.

The PML-N supreme leader’s statement about the November 2008 Mumbai attacks in an interview to a local newspaper has triggered a storm of criticism from people of all social strata, especially politicos.

Not only opposition parties, including Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Tehree-i-Insaf (PTI), launched a frontal attack on Sharif after his statement made headlines at home and abroad, but also leaders belonging to the ruling PML-N didn’t endorse his statement.

PML-N president and Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif a day earlier denied that his elder brother had given any such statement, saying the statement was incorrectly attributed to him.

The PML-N lifelong supreme leader, in an interview with a leading English daily, said that “militant organisations are active” in Pakistan and asked the interviewer if the state should allow them to go across the border and kill 150 people in Mumbai.

Sharif, who was answering a question about his ouster, steered the conversation towards foreign policy and national security by saying that Pakistan has isolated itself in international arena despite giving sacrifices in war on terror.