Ayaz Sadiq or Mir Sadiq, PML-N leader flayed over Indian pilot comments

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Ayaz Sadiq has come under heavy criticism from all quarters after he claimed that Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi was feeling the heat from New Delhi to return an Indian pilot captured in 2019.

In February of last year, Prime Minister Imran Khan announced the release of Indian pilot Abhinandan Varthaman, who was captured after his plane was shot down by the Pakistan Air Force after violating the country’s airspace. PM Imran’s gesture of goodwill towards New Delhi came at a time when tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours were high.

“I remember his [FM Qureshi] legs were trembling, sweat on the forehead in the parliamentary committee meeting claiming we had to return the pilot or India would attack us…which was an utter lie,” Sadiq, who has also served as the speaker of National Assembly, said on the floor of the lower house.

In the wake of the backlash, Sadiq issued a video statement in which he said his remarks were being "misquoted and misreported".

His comments were manipulated by the Indian media as an admission that Islamabad showed weakness.Director General of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Maj Gen Babar Iftikhar, in a press conference earlier today, said: “Recent political statements are nothing more than an attempt to manipulate history”.

Despite not naming any politician, the head of the military’s media wing said such comments were "disappointing" and "misleading".

Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Ali Haider Zaidi, was more damning in his indictment, saying,”Ayaz Sadiq should be publicly called Mir Sadiq from now onwards. Pakistan has suffered enough at the hands of these low life criminals masquerading as politicians”.He said that Sadiq had “lied on the floor of the house to feed the false narrative of our enemies.”

While journalist Zarrar Khuhro, shared a comical video of a boxer knocking himself out as an analogy for Sadiq’s comments.

“No one here needs an opponent everyone is capable of knocking themselves out. Wait a week and you'll likely have another example,” the political analyst went on to say.

Television anchor Moeed Pirzada also lashed out at the PML-N leader as he claimed that "Sadiq used to be respected but has now lost all that”.