Sharif draws flak for Kasab remark

Predictably enough, Pakistan's Urdu press has lambasted Pakistan Muslim League (N) leader and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif for his statement that Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist involved in Mumbai attack, is a Pakistani national. The daily, 'Ausaf ', said that Sharif's comment has given the Indian media further pretext to train their guns on Pakistan. ''The Indian electronic and print media is on an overdrive. They have sensationalized Sharif's statements,'' said 'Ausaf'.

However, a PML(N) spokesperson clarified that Nawaz Sharif's statement has been twisted out of context by the Indian media. The spokesperson said that Sharif had only said that the police had cordoned off Kasab's village, Faridkot. This, the spokesperson said, had been blown out of proportion and reported as if Sharif had said that Kasab was a Pakistani.

Meanwhile, the daily 'Jasarat', in its editorial, pulled up Pakistani bureaucrats who had humiliated noted scholar, Syed Zawar Hussain Zaidi, who had compiled Pakistan's history called 'Jinnah Papers'.

The paper said that the scholar, who was appointed by assassinated former PM Benazir Bhutto to compile the book, has been thrown out of the government house allotted to him. ''If this can happen to a scholar who has not charged a penny for his works, the fate of other scholars can be left to only Allah,'' the paper commented.