A former Pakistani intelligence officer has claimed that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had met at least five times with ex-premier Nawaz Sharif over the past years, Press TV reported.
Khalid Khwaja, officer of Pakistan's leading spy agency Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and a human rights activist, claimed that he himself had arranged five meetings between bin Laden and Sharif, a Press TV correspondent reported.
"I challenge the deniers of such meetings and ask them to present solid evidence in this respect if they have," Khwaja told a private Pakistani TV channel.
He, however, denied that Osama had handed over 500 million rupees to Sharif. "I had not uttered such statement in the past," he said.
Khwaja said he hoped Sharif, who is also the chief of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), would not 'tell a lie' in this regard.
The PML-N spokesman Siddique al-Farooq described Khwaja's remarks as baseless and said that no such meetings had ever taken place.
The US believes that bin Laden, the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks, is hiding in Pakistan's rugged tribal terrain along with his diehard commanders.
In the meantime, Pakistan's Supreme Court will hear petitions seeking the prosecution of Sharif, for murder.
He has already denied ordering the murder of an ex-army officer after an alleged political kickback deal turned sour.
Sharif has recently been acquitted of similar criminal charges by the Supreme Court.
The court's decision was made on July 21 but it is expected to begin its inquiries imminently.
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