Asia-Pacific, Headlines

Pakistan PM Ducks the Osama Question

Ashfaq Yusufzai

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, May 9 2011 (IPS) - Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani defended Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) amid scathing criticism from the world community that the spy agency had aided and abetted Osama bin Laden, who was hunted down and killed by U.S. forces in Pakistan May 1.

“The ISI is an asset of the nation,” Gilani said in a speech before parliament Monday, amid public consternation and disappointment that he failed to stand up to international criticism. He delivered the speech in English, a sign he wanted to convey the message to the international community.

Apart from announcing that Chief of Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani would give a briefing to a joint session of the National Assembly and the Senate on May 13, Gillani reiterated his earlier stance that the U.S. special forces had reached bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad with the help of the ISI.

Gilani also said that the entire nation had confidence in the ISI and the political leadership.

But the people expected from the prime minister a stronger statement, similar to the one the government earlier issued in which it called the Abbottabad operation “an unauthorised unilateral action” that would not be allowed to happen again.

“The prime minister’s argument that the national policy was consistent with the wishes of the people holds no logic as the nation has been badly hurt by the unauthorised attack by the U.S and wants the government to issue a hard statement,” said Rohul Amin, a political science professor at the Government College in Peshawar.

The foreign policy of Pakistan has never been in line with the wishes of the people, but has served U.S. interests to the point of unacceptability, he said.

Opposition leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said in a speech that they had confidence in the professionalism of the army and the ISI but “we wanted an explanation as to how the Abbottabad story happened.”

“We want the prime minister to emulate the statement of the GHQ wherein it had warned the U.S. against such unprovoked attacks in future,” Khan said.

On one hand, Gilani admitted the failure of the intelligence agencies in tracing the world’s most wanted terrorist to his hideout in Abbottabad. But on the other hand, he said that it was the ISI that facilitated the U.S. access to the compound.

He ordered an enquiry into the Abbottabad incident and assured that those responsible for the incident would be held accountable.

The Barack Obama administration has demanded that Pakistan reveal who among its officials were harbouring bin Laden.

Pakistan has been at the frontline of the war on terror, and has lost more than 3,500 soldiers, as well as 10,000 civilians, killed by suicide bombers and other bomb attacks since 2003, according to one estimate.

The public took Gilani’s speech lightly. “We know that our government is weak because it receives huge financial assistance from the U.S,” Javid Ali, a local teacher, told IPS. Ali said that he watched the entire speech and hoped to hear a harsh statement to counter the derogatory remarks issued by U.S. officials.

“The prime minister just wanted to play to the gallery and tell the U.S. that he was willing to (turn into a) scapegoat ISI and army officials to please the U.S.,” said college student Muhammad Farooq. Farooq, who is studying International Relations at the University of Peshawar, told IPS that the prime minister should have given a tit-for-tat response to the U.S. accusations, but failed to do so.

“We are a dignified nation but our rulers are the slaves of the U.S.,” said Asad Qaisar, a leader of the Pakistan Tehreek Insaf party of cricket hero turned politician Imran Khan. Qaisar said it was high time the Pakistani government severed ties with America and denied NATO the route through Pakistan it uses to transport supplies to Afghanistan, in protest against the illegal U.S. operation.

“Pakistan must stop its cooperation with America over the Abbottabad case. But the prime minister still said that Osama was responsible for the killings of thousands of Pakistanis and deserved to be killed,” implying that the U.S. had the authority to kill the people it deemed terrorists, in any corner of Pakistan, Qaisar said.

“The prime minister’s speech hasn’t resolved the doubts in the minds of the people about the operation, and it was evident from the speech that the U.S. would not face any challenge even if it did something like that in the future,” Nawaz Khan, a student from the North Waziristan Agency, told IPS.