ISLAMABAD:
A judicial commission investigating last year’s death of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad is still waiting for answers to a set of questions it had forwarded to President Asif Ali Zardari more than four months ago.
Officials privy to the proceedings of the Abbottabad Commission said on Tuesday the probe body had asked heads of all political parties, including the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), to respond to its queries regarding the incident.
US commandos raided a compound in Abbottabad on May 2, 2011 to capture the former al Qaeda chief who had been living there for more than five years.
The government subsequently formed a five-member judicial commission to probe the presence of Bin Laden so close to Pakistan’s premier military training facility and the circumstances leading to his death in the raid by US troops.
The commission was due to submit its report by the end of last year but is still struggling to finalise it reportedly due to reluctance on whether to hold somebody from within the Pakistani political or military leadership responsible.
Officials said questions were sent to President Zardari not as head of the state but as chief of a political party; however, an answer is still awaited, with the PPP arguing that by virtue of being the president, Zardari is immune from being present before any commission.
Officials at the presidency, however, denied having received any correspondence from the commission. The PPP secretariat in Islamabad also did not confirm that it received any letter from the probe body for its chief.
Chairman of the Abbottabad commission Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal announced in December to send questions to the president and asked the heads of other parties to personally appear before the body to record their statements.
But except for a few, heads of nearly all the major political groups did not personally appear before the committee and were instead represented by other members.
The PPP immediately said it was not binding on its leaders to appear before the commission and no one from the party represented President Zardari before the judicial body.
Officials said the commission was likely to mention this factor as one of the reasons for the probe’s delay when it finally comes up with the report possibly by the end of this month.
When contacted, both the chairman of the commission and Presidential spokesperson Senator Farhatullah Babar were not available for comment.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 9th, 2012.
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@Zaleem Singh: Please visit to a doctor for medical checkup.
We would like the commission to summon Saudi intel chief and ask about the high level of cooperation they have had with ISI - amazingly OBL was buried to sea by US and house demolished by Pakistan, family went into Saudi's black hole - all conforms with Saudi belief system (remove all evidences and act secretly).
Our judges and so called Lawyers just know how to tell us not to drink Shezaan or can teach us how to set terrorists free - they are incapable of anything else
@Khalq e Khuda: Looks like there are still some honest people in Pakistan. Thanks for your fairness and honesty. OBL was brought in during Gen Mush's era and Gen Kayani was his righthand man and ISI chief. What could any politician add to the report? If any secular or liberal politician would have known about the exact presence of OBL, he would have been long gone. Perhaps murdered by unknown people. Not to give the Commission the excuse to drag their feet for another year, PPP should ask one of its officials to answer the questions. That would leave no excuse for the commission. Thanks and regards, Mirza
This commission business is an exercise in futility. The government formed the Commission not to find out something concrete (What is there to find anyway?) but to cool things off, because our naive people thought it was kind of an affront to our sovereignty. They should better think in terms of objectives. What is the objective of the United states government? To crush al Qaeda. What is the objective of the government of Pakistan? Officially, the same, or they wouldn't be in the business of 'war on terror.' Unofficially, what is the objective? It is anybody's guess. But when they fight what the US describes as terrorists, who have killed more Pakistani Muslims than 'American Imperialists,' they should have no objection to either drone attacks or raids of the Abbottabad kind because they serve the same objective that they avowedly have. It is strange that even after this experience, they protest when the US Secretary of State claims that Zawahiri is 'somewhere in Pakistan’ and vehemently deny his presence in Pakistan! You can confirm the presence of a person in hiding somewhere if you definitely know that he is there. But certainly you can never be completely sure that he is not there. If the investigation by the Commission is about 'sovereignty, they should know that sovereignty has to be demonstrated, not claimed. The only purpose this Commission has served is that it has bought time for the people's sentiments to get cooled.
Osama was in there or near by in Haripur for past ten years but of course politicians many of whom were in jail or in exile are to answer questionnaires. Would anyone tell these judges that it is not mandatory to appear before an investigatory commission. Notice by a judicial commission is not a summon by the Court!
Your own President is too busy to respond to the Abbottabad Commission - puts the whole OBL debacle in proper perspective. I suspect he knows that if and when this Commission publishes a report it will be the final straw in your tenuous relationship with America.
Perhaps the Commission should have sent a Questionnaire to Hafiz Saeed and demanded an answer. Zardari Zindabad !
@Zia Khan & Judicial Commision on OBL incident.
Why should the political parties present there views on this?
Very very ODD,
Does Judicial Commisson think Political parties are running there own ISI's?????
really getting more weird day by day !!!!!
Tell the truth once for ever.
He should answer in due time to respect the justice of the country.
@Zaleem Singh: hahahahahahaha..
Psst. You have to explain these questions to him as well.
Maharajah Ranjit Singh was great leader.He ruled his kingdom with iron fist majority of his subjects were Muslims. When ever some incidence happened, to keep the Muslims under the lid,he use to order the inquiry which cooled the issue. Some one in the present ruling party towing the same line. I have lost the count how many inquiry were order and what was the out come?
Let us take Abbottabad commission it has passed one year, No out come yet,imagine how much money has been spent only on this commission. On top of this CNN showed full documentary how this happened? Some of it is true they came they killed Ben Laden and they left unnoticed.
Does the commission really think he is going to answer anything??? Our judges don't seem to read the tea leaves. I always thought that people were right when they selected their leaders. But in our country we have leaders thrust upon us time and again.
Zardari is innocent and a great leader