Abbottabad commission: Sharif gives govt until June 30 to form panel

PML-N chief threatens en masse resignation from assemblies if commission not formed.

ISLAMABAD:

Chief of his own faction of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz Sharif has given the government until June 30 to form an independent commission to investigate the Abbottabad fiasco or else his party’s lawmakers could resign from assemblies en masse.

A joint closed-door session of parliament had demanded last month that the government set up an independent commission to inquire into the May 2 killing of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in a top-secret operation by US commandos in Abbottabad.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani announced a commission, comprising a sitting judge of the Supreme Court and retired civil
and military bureaucrats, late last month. But Sharif’s party rejected it saying
the opposition was not consulted on the composition of the commission.

In an exclusive interview with Javed Chaudhry in the Express News programme, Kal Tak, the PML-N supremo strongly criticised the PPP-led coalition government accusing it of incompetence.

“The government should have set up a commission in consultation with Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on May 3 (a day after the Abbottabad attack),” he said. “But that didn’t happen.”

Sharif regretted that the government even disregarded the resolution passed by the joint session of parliament.

The PML-N chief warned that if the Abbottabad fiasco was not investigated, the country’s future would be at stake.

He said that his party has a couple of options, if the commission was not formed before June 30. “Our lawmakers can even resign from assemblies for greater national interest,” he added.



Published in The Express Tribune, June 8th, 2011.