ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was slammed for calling al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden a “shaheed” or martyr. While speaking during the budget session in the parliament on Thursday, he said that there is an increasing criticism of his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. He also discussed the history of Pakistan's troubled relations with the US and asserted that "The Americans came to Abbottabad and killed Osama bin Laden. Martyred him." He further added that Pakistan supported the war on terror but the US blamed Pakistan.

He quoted that, "For Pakistanis across the globe, it was an embarrassing moment when the Americans came and killed Osama bin Laden Abottabad...martyred him. The whole world started abusing us. Our ally came inside our country and killed informing us. And, 70,000 Pakistanis died because of US' war on terror."

Khan in his speech said that there is no confusion or contradiction in official policies since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Pakistan PM asserted that, "People give the example of New Zealand when speaking about social distancing but New Zealand has social distancing already with a low population density."

Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari of PPP criticised Khan's speech and said that, “I can only compare this to how the state of Pakistan sent soldiers to fight in Kargil. They sent them to their deaths and we did not even acknowledge them.”

Khawaja Asif of the opposition PML-N asserted that "Osama brought terrorism to the country, he destroyed it and Imran Khan has declared him as shaheed."

Former Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif told parliament that "Imran Khan has fiddled with history, declaring Osama bin Laden as a martyr." Meena Gabeena Pakistani activist took to her microblogging site and wrote as "Muslims all over the world are struggling because of the discrimination they face due to recent terrorism & our PM makes it worse by calling only a martyr of Islam!" (With Inputs from agencies and HT)