The PPP leader faces backlash in Pakistan after he suggested individuals like Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar should be extradited to India.
Islamabad: Describing former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari as an “immature political child,” the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has slammed him for suggesting that Islamabad could extradite “individuals of concern” to India as a confidence-building measure.
During an interview with Al Jazeera, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that his country had no objection to extraditing “individuals of concern" to India as a confidence-building measure, as long as New Delhi showed willingness to cooperate in the process.
His remarks came as he responded to a question about extraditing LeT chief Hafiz Saeed and Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar as possible concessions and good-faith gestures to India, Dawn newspaper reported.
Both LeT and JeM have been banned by Pakistan, according to the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA). Saeed, the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack mastermind, is currently serving a 33-year sentence for terror financing. Azhar, a UN-designated global terrorist, has been proscribed by NACTA and has been living in an undisclosed place for the last many years.
Reacting to Bilawal's remarks, Sheikh Waqas Akram, spokesperson of the jailed former prime minister Imran Khan-led PTI, in a statement, said the PPP leader is an “immature political child”, the Dawn newspaper reported.
Bilawal's proposal was ill-advised and detrimental to Pakistan’s national security narrative, and such statements humiliate the country on international platforms, he said. “We fail to understand why Bilawal is so keen on appeasing India,” he added.
Pressed on the whereabouts of Saeed and Azhar, Bilawal had stated that the former was incarcerated, while Islamabad believes the latter is in Afghanistan.
