Lahore: The general belief is that Chief of Army Staff Asim Munir was the brain behind Pakistan’s military response to Operation Sindoor, conducted by India in the early hours of May 7 to destroy several terror hubs in Pakistan and PoK to avenge the brutal April 22 Pahalgam attack.
However, a senior leader of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has claimed that last week’s drone attacks targeting Indian civilians, military bases and religious places was conceptualised and designed under the direct supervision of Nawaz Sharif, the party’s president and former prime minister.
During a press conference on Wednesday, Information Minister of Punjab province Azma Bukhari said that Nawaz played a pivotal role in orchestrating Pakistan’s response to India’s lethal air strikes.
“The whole operation against India was designed under the supervision of former prime minister and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif. He is not a leader of ‘a, b, c, d type’; his work speaks for itself,” Bukhari said.
India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire on Saturday after four days of intense cross-border exchanges involving drone attacks and missile strikes.
Nawaz, an advocate for diplomatic solutions to Indo-Pak tensions, recently wrote in a post on X: “Pakistan is a peace-loving country and prefers peace, but also knows how to defend itself.”
“Thanks be to Allah Almighty for making Pakistan proud. I congratulate the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shahbaz Sharif, the Chief of Army Staff, General Syed Asim Munir, the Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Sindhu, and the armed forces of Pakistan,” Nawaz wrote.
It may be recalled that Nawaz, who served as Pakistan’s prime minister three times, was in office during the 1999 Kargil war which India won resoundingly.
