government of Benazir Bhutto.
Brigadier Mumtaz Ahmad, an ex-director of Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) claimed that Sharif had sought Osama Bin Laden's help for toppling Bhutto's government in the 1990s. (Image: Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif leads the second-largest political party in the nuclear-armed country).
"Former Premier Nawaz Sharif had met al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden ... all funds to topple the government of Benazir Bhutto in late 90's were provided by al-Qaeda," he said in an interview with a local TV channel.
The revelation comes days after Khalid Khwaja; a former official from Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) claimed that he himself had arranged five meetings between Bin Laden and Sharif.
While reacting to the statement, the PML-N spokesman Ehsan Iqbal described the remarks as baseless and said that no such meetings had ever taken place, according to a Press TV correspondent.
Bhutto, 54, who was assassinated in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi in late 2007, spent three decades of her life navigating the turbulent and often violent world of Pakistani politics.
Bhutto was first elected prime minister after years of military rule in 1988. Sharif was elected premier after the dismissal of Bhutto's government in 1990.
US officials believe that Bin Laden, the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks, is hiding somewhere in Pakistan's volatile tribal belt bordering Afghanistan.
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