LAHORE: Ali Haider Gilani made a public appearance outside his home in Lahore on Thursday for the first time since his recovery from captivity in Afghanistan.

Refusing to reveal details of his three-year-long ordeal, he said: “It’s a very long story.”

“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,” said Haider with his father Yousuf Raza Gilani by his side.

He gave no details about whether he would publish a memoir.

“You’ve grown out your beard, will you continue to keep it?” inquired a reporter.

“I was very close to God before the Taliban too,” replied Haider, referring to his three years in captivity.

'A miracle'

“The way my son has been saved is a miracle,” said former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani as he thanked the US and Afghan forces' joint operation, during which Al Qaeda militants were also killed.

The former PM also revealed his son had written a manuscript for a book detailing his ordeal while in captivity, but which has been burned since. He did not specify who burned the papers or when.

Turning to more prescient matters, the senior Gilani commented the opposition had presented its point of view vis-a-vis the Panama leaks, and that it is now up to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to clarify his stance in Parliament, referring to the PM's plan to attend the session on Friday.

He also added that nearly 8,000 individuals had benefited from the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), yet he had been victimised in particular even though he was not a beneficiary.

Hillary Clinton congratulates Yousuf Raza Gilani

United States presidential candidate Hillary Clinton telephoned Yousuf Raza Gilani on Thursday and congratulated him on the safe return of his son.

Clinton said “US had good relations with Pakistan during Gilani’s tenure as the prime minister”.

Ali Haider Gilani's recovery

Former prime minister Yousuf Raza 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.

Haider, who was kidnapped after an election rally in May 2013 in his hometown Multan, returned to Pakistan on Wednesday in a special plane sent by the PM.

Information about Haider's recovery was conveyed by Afghan National Security Adviser Mohammad Hanif Atmar to Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz via telephone, but it was Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari who broke the news on Twitter.