'Imran Khan sent back Abhinandan Varthaman': PTI's Qureshi in parliament

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Monday raked up the 2019 Balakot airstrike during which Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter pilot Abhinandan Varthaman was held captive by Pakistan for 60 hours after his aircraft was shot down in an aerial dogfight. 

Qureshi was speaking in the National Assembly which is set to elect the new prime minister of Pakistan. Qureshi was also in the fray for the prime ministerial post with his nomination papers approved on Sunday. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Shehbaz Sharif is the joint opposition candidate for the top post.

“The nation should be proud that when India attacked Pakistan after the Pulwama suicide attack. Imran Khan had given a befitting reply to India and freed Abhinandan and sent him back,” Qureshi said while praising his party president.

Varthaman shot down the F-16 over Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, but was taken captive by the Pakistan Army after his plane was shot down by enemy forces.

The Pakistan Army was forced to release him due to the extensive pressure exerted by the Indian side along with the international intervention into the matter. Varthaman was part of the Srinagar-based 51 squadron and had flown to thwart an aerial attack launched by the Pakistanis on February 27, 2019.

Qureshi later announced that legislators from the ousted Pakistani prime minister's party announced they are resigning en mass from the lower house of parliament in protest against the formation of a new government by his political opponents.

"We are announcing we are all resigning," Qureshi, former foreign minister and vice president of Khan's party, said. 

Khan was ousted in a no-confidence vote by the same assembly in the early hours of Sunday.