By Muhammad Najeeb, IANS,
Islamabad : Former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif Wednesday said that his country would not “tolerate any aggression by anyone”, but reiterated that his party backed the government’s offer of a joint India-Pakistan probe into the Mumbai terror attacks.
Addressing a press conference, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief said that Pakistan has already expressed its readiness to a joint investigation and his party “backs this offer”.
Sharif, who is now at loggerheads with Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) that heads the coalition government, said that the whole nation is “one for the defence of the country and will not tolerate any aggression by anyone”.
He stressed that the time is for peace and not for war. He urged the governments of the neighbouring countries to cooperate with each other on tackling terrorism, which has now become an international problem and is not limited to any particular country or region.
Sharif said that his party is in favour of peace and friendship with India as “the region cannot afford any tension”.
Earlier, his party had questioned the ability of the government to tackle the crisis situation. Party spokesman Ahsan Iqbal had criticised the government’s initial decision to send the chief of its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to India.
The PML-N has also criticised the ban and the crackdown on the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, said to be a front for the terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) that has been blamed for the Nov 26 terror strike in Mumbai that claimed over 170 lives. The party said that such action should have been taken only after ther was proof of the organisation being involved in terrorist activities.