Senior Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) leader and former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi refused to call Osama bin Laden a terrorist while speaking on a talk show.
When anchor Fareeha Idrees asked Abbasi whether he thinks Osama bin Laden was a martyr, he said that let the Parliament debate the matter. "We should decide once and for all if Osama was a martyr or not. If this is an issue, there needs to be a debate on it," he said.
When the anchor said to him that as a former prime minister his opinion on the issue matters, he proceeded to say that even a former PM is a smaller authority than the parliament.
https://twitter.com/UNewsTv/status/1407392131912773632?s=20
Earlier, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had also refused to call Osama bin Ladin a terrorist during interview with an international media outlet. When asked about Prime Minister Imran Khan's controversial statement declaring Osama bin Laden a 'shaheed', the FM first said that the statement was taken out of context and a section of media 'played it up'. When the interviewer asked him if he disagreed with the PM and whether or not he considered bin Laden a martyr, he refused to answer the question, saying: "I will let that pass."
The FM's statement led to widespread criticism on social media with Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry also stating that killers of innocent people cannot be termed a martyr.
When anchor Fareeha Idrees asked Abbasi whether he thinks Osama bin Laden was a martyr, he said that let the Parliament debate the matter. "We should decide once and for all if Osama was a martyr or not. If this is an issue, there needs to be a debate on it," he said.
When the anchor said to him that as a former prime minister his opinion on the issue matters, he proceeded to say that even a former PM is a smaller authority than the parliament.
https://twitter.com/UNewsTv/status/1407392131912773632?s=20
Earlier, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had also refused to call Osama bin Ladin a terrorist during interview with an international media outlet. When asked about Prime Minister Imran Khan's controversial statement declaring Osama bin Laden a 'shaheed', the FM first said that the statement was taken out of context and a section of media 'played it up'. When the interviewer asked him if he disagreed with the PM and whether or not he considered bin Laden a martyr, he refused to answer the question, saying: "I will let that pass."
The FM's statement led to widespread criticism on social media with Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry also stating that killers of innocent people cannot be termed a martyr.