Probing May 2 raid: Abbottabad panel seeks to record PM’s statement
The judicial commission probing the Abbottabad incursion which killed the al Qaeda chief is hoping to pencil in a ‘meeting’ with the prime minister to ‘record his statement’ before concluding its report, a top official revealed.
“The commission will send a formal request to the premier to have a meeting with its members when he comes back from his London trip,” an official privy to the Abbottabad Commission proceedings told The Express Tribune on Sunday.
“Yousaf Raza Gilani was the chief executive of the country at the time when Osama bin Laden was taken out by American commandos… He must have something important to share with us,” the official quoted one of the commission members as saying.
“His is going to be a very crucial statement and we would like to hear from him.”
Commandos of the US Navy, known as SEALs, raided a housing compound in Abbottabad on May 2, 2011 and killed the 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 the world’s most-wanted man close to Pakistan’s premier military training facility and the circumstances leading to his death in a night raid by US troops.
The commission was due to submit its report by the end of 2011 but is still struggling to finalise the investigations reportedly because of “indecision” on whether to hold somebody from within the Pakistani political or military leadership responsible.
The revelation that the commission wanted to record the premier’s statement comes weeks after it was reported that the judicial body was likely to partially blame Gilani for the raid.
It was on his orders, according to reports, that former Pakistan ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani issued visas to several hundred operators of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who tracked down the al Qaeda leader.
But the commission denied these reports in a statement the next day. It was reported last week that the commission was also waiting for replies to a set of questions it sent to President Asif Ali Zardari more than two months ago.
A member of the commission also clarified that the questions sent to Zardari were not sent bearing in mind that he was the head of the state but the chief of a political party.
The judicial body has interviewed heads and representatives of almost every political party to ‘seek their suggestions’.
Reports also surfaced suggesting the completion of the report was highly unlikely by the end of this month as announced earlier.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 14th, 2012.
COMMENTS (11)
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How the head of a political party have any knowledge of anything. What a circus our jurists put up.
Any guess on how much money the commission members have made as compensation and in form of TA / DA. Perhaps we will need another commission to find out. I am afraid that it will end-up with findings no different to those of earlier commissions of this sort.
Why doesnt the Supreme Court just cut to the chase, invoke doctrine of necessity and hang Zardari and Gilani. It clearly has a vendetta and would not rest until they are out of office and it has not exactly done anything to keep the veil of impartiality intact so just do it!
@ishrat salim:
The commission is trying to frame him because he is affiliated and is a defacto head of a political party. Members of armed forces are angels and hence excepted from any commissions, cases, courts and convictions of our azaad adliya.
Now that the services chiefs (as the uniformed member of commission has already told his mind) cannot be blamed, someone has got to take the blame. Like 1971...the only difference is that Hamood-ur-Rahman was a neutral person and current lot of jurists is tainted one.
The World is not in any doubt about how OBL got to Abbotabad and who sheltered him there. It is natural that the Commission is interested in making the ruling Political party the scapegoat to protect the ideological driven agendas in the country. Such shenanigans will not help the country but send a terrible signal that the country will not change its course and is beyond salvage.
Commission is just waiting for the right time given by state agencies to publish the report
Why this Charade ?/? After all none this going to be published in public domain ! Why has it taken so long??? Rest assure the Global Commuinity has already reached their own conclusion in regards to this matter and this report will have no significance whatsoever !
Too bad OBL was living in Abbottabad for 6 years. It is not easy to blame his presence on the current govt. Yet the Commission is trying hard to pin point the blame for his presence and the US attack on the PPP leadership. The PPP leaders must have conspired to bring OBL in Abbottabad so when they win the elections and come to power they invited the US forces to come and get their most wanted man.
"The commission was due to submit its report by the end of 2011 but is still struggling to finalise the investigations reportedly because of “indecision” on whether to hold somebody from within the Pakistani political or military leadership responsible." ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Like in the Benazir Bhutto murder case.