Islamabad: Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had supported and funded ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif, a former Pakistani diplomat who also served as a minister in the PML-N supremo’s cabinet has alleged.

“Yes, Osama supported Mian Nawaz Sharif at one time. However, that is a complicated story. He (Osama) used to extend financial assistance (to Sharif),” Pakistan’s former envoy to the United States Abida Hussain claimed this during an interview to a private news channel, Geo TV reported.

Abida, also an ex-cabinet member of Nawaz Sharif's government, recalled that at one-time bin Laden was popular and liked by everyone including the Americans but at a later stage, he was treated as a 'stranger'.

Her remarks come days after Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's Member of National Assembly Farrukh Habib alleged that Nawaz Sharif had laid the foundation of foreign funding in the country and took USD 10 million from Osama bin Laden to bring a no-confidence motion for overthrowing Benazir Bhutto's government.

Nawaz Sharif, who has been the prime minister of Pakistan for three non-consecutive terms, has been accused, time and again, of taking money from slain terrorist Osama bin Laden in order to promote and fund jihad in Kashmir. He served as prime minister from 1990-93, 1997-98, and 2013-17.

Sharif, the 70-year-old supremo of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) who was ousted from power in 2017 by the Supreme Court on corruption charges, is in London for medical treatment.

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