Former prime minister and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Yousuf Raza Gilani on Friday rejected reports circulating on social media regarding the release of his son Ali Haider Gilani after three years of detention by Taliban.
Speaking to reporters outside his Lahore residence, Gilani said his son was recovered after a successful military operation which was carried out by the US and Afghan forces on Afghanistan’s soil.
The PPP leader once again praised the efforts of US and Afghan forces for the safe recovery of his son.
Further, Gilani said he received several phone calls, congratulating him over his son’s recovery. “US ambassador [to Pakistan] felicitated me over the phone and said he would have personally welcomed him [Haider] if he had arrived in Islamabad,” he said.
“Democratic candidate for US presidency Hillary Clinton also called me and said ‘we are fighting the war on terror and we have a partnership with Pakistan. If I get elected as US president I will invite you to the White House.’”
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In response to a question regarding the recent Hollywood offer to Haider for making a film on his three-year captivity, Gilani said: “It is up to Ali Haider to take a decision whether he wants to support this idea or to write a book.”
Haider had arrived in Lahore on Wednesday after he was rescued during a counter-terror raid by US and Afghan forces in eastern Afghanistan Tuesday. He was kidnapped by militants in the outskirts of Multan on May 9, 2013, just two days before a bitterly contested national election in which he was campaigning.
Earlier, addressing the media on Thursday, Haider had refused to share any details about his time in the custody of militants, and said it was a long story which he would tell some other time.
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