Former Pak PM Gilani's kidnapped son makes public appearance

Ali Haider Gilani on Thursday made a public appearance at his Lahore home for the first time since he returned to Pakistan from three years of captivity in Afghanistan.

"I just want to thank everyone for their prayers and hard work for my return. I am thankful to have reached home safely and happily. I feel great," Dawn quoted Haider as saying with his father Yousuf Raza Gilani by his side.

"I'd also like to thank everyone celebrating, especially those who came [to Lahore] all the way from Multan just to see me. I'd like to thank them all," he added.

He, however, refused to describe his ordeal or any details whether he would publish a memoir or not.

 

"It's a very long story," he said adding," I was very close to God before the Taliban too."

Meanwhile, former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani thanked the US and Afghan forces efforts for rescuing his son.

"The way my son has been saved is a miracle," he said.

The former PM also revealed his son had written a manuscript for a book detailing his ordeal while in captivity, which has been burned since.

Gilani's kidnapped son Ali Haider Gilani was on Tuesday recovered in a joint operation of Afghan and US forces from an Al Qaeda compound in Afghanistan's Paktika province.

He was kidnapped after an election rally in May 2013 in his hometown Multan.

He returned Pakistan on Wednesday in a special plane sent by the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.