Nawaz called Manmohan a 'dehati aurat', says Pak scribe

UPDATE: Senior Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir has spoken to CNN-IBN, and has confirmed the comments of Nawaz Sharif that are being reported in the media. Mir said: “Nawaz Sharif had called me and the Indian journalist Barkha Dutt for breakfast and spoke to us about his meeting with Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh that will happen on Sunday. The conversation was off the record but I can tell you that Nawaz Sharif was disappointed at the way Manmohan Singh met Barack Obama and complained to him like a village woman.”

UPDATE: Journalist Barkha Dutt, who was present at the meeting, has denied the interpretation of events, saying that Sharif’s words have been “twisted."

Read her tweets on the topic below: https://twitter.com/BDUTT/status/384239131540606976 https://twitter.com/BDUTT/status/384240338485133312 https://twitter.com/BDUTT/status/384240636893089792 https://twitter.com/BDUTT/status/384241259411668992 https://twitter.com/BDUTT/status/384241867816468480 Even as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh did some tough talking on state-sponsored terror in his address to the United Nations General Assembly, calling Pakistan the “epicenter of terrorism”, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif courted controversy by reportedly likening Singh’s comments to the whining of a “dehati aurat”, or village crone. Sharif’s remarks, reportedly made in jest to reporters during an off-the-record briefing, were reported by Pakistan’s Geo TV. Speaking to the news anchor, Geo TV’s Hamid Mir said Sharif was reacting to Singh’s plainspeak on terrorism originating on Pakistani soil and to reports that Singh and President Barack Obama had discussed the subject as well. The manner in which Singh was raising the issue at the global forum reminded Sharif of a dehati aurat, the latter reportedly told journalists. NDTV’s Barkha Dutt was present at the informal briefing, Mir added. [caption id=“attachment_114025” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Manmohan SIngh and Nawaz Sharif are expected to meet later today[/caption] Later, in an interview to IBN7, Mir said Sharif had spoken “in a lighter vein”. Not much earlier, in a widely acclaimed address to the UN General Assembly , Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demanded that Pakistan act strongly to shut down all assistance to cross-border terrorism. “State-sponsored cross-border terrorism is of particular concern to India, also on account of the fact that the epicentre of terrorism in our region is located in our neighbourhood in Pakistan,” he said. While expressing readiness to solve issues including Jammu and Kashmir through bilateral dialogue, the Prime Minister said, “However, for progress to be made, it is imperative that the territory of Pakistan and the areas under its control are not utilised for aiding and abetting terrorism directed against India. Singh is set to hold his first one-on-one meeting with Sharif since the latter assumed office in June. The talks will take place in the backdrop of a series of LoC ceasefire violations, the beheading of an Indian soldier on the LoC early this year and continued terrorist attacks including the latest, one earlier this week at an Army camp in Jammu. The Jammu attacks have caused almost all opposition parties to demand that the peace talks be called off, and Singh himself has said, during a media briefing following his talks with President Obama, that expectations from the summit-level meeting with the Pakistani premier should be toned down. Reactions to Sharif’s comments ranged from disbelief to outrage.[Fawad Chaudhry is a columnist, and former advisor to the prime minister of Pakistan]

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  [Abbas Nasir is former Editor, The Dawn]