Osama bin Laden death: Pakistan PM orders inquiry

Guardian

Pakistani security forces cordon off a street leading to the last hideout
of Osama bin Laden. Photograph: Aamir Qureshi/AFP/Getty Images

Yousaf Raza Gilani denies Pakistan helped al-Qaida, orders army to answer MPs' questions and warns US over future raids

Pakistan's prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, has ordered the army to investigate how Osama bin Laden managed to hide in the country for up to eight years, and has called on the military leadership to answer questions before parliament.

Addressing criticism from US officials, including President Barack Obama, Gilani told parliament it was "disingenuous" to blame Pakistan or accuse its intelligence services of being "in cahoots" with al-Qaida.

"Allegations of complicity or incompetence are absurd," he said. "We didn't invite Osama bin Laden to Pakistan." He also warned Washington that future unilateral strikes could be met with "full force".
The speech came a day after Obama said Islamabad had questions to answer about Bin Laden's "support network" in the country, including possible help from government officials. Gilani retorted that Bin Laden's sanctuary was a "failure of the world" and defended the role of the military's Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency, which has come under sharp attack at home and abroad.
"The ISI is a national asset and has the full support of the government. We are proud of its considerable contribution to the anti-terror campaign," he said.

The forthright speech was an attempt to rally Pakistan's civilian and military leadership in the face of mounting international criticism following the dramatic raid on the compound at Abbottabad, 35 miles north of the capital, Islamabad, that killed the al-Qaida chief.

The ISI had passed "key leads to the CIA" that ultimately led to Bin Laden and helped capture many senior al-Qaida lieutenants since 2001, including 248 in one operation alone, Gilani said.

He paid lip service to the alliance with America and welcomed a forthcoming visit from the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton. But he pointedly paid tribute to help from China, "a source of inspiration for the people of Pakistan", he said.

Left unsaid was Pakistan longstanding military and nuclear co-operation with China, which is believed to have boosted Pakistan's nuclear programme in the 1990s.

The investigation into the Bin Laden raid is to be carried out by the army's adjutant general, Lieutenant-General Javed Iqbal, Gilani said. The army leadership will address a closed session of parliament on Friday and answer questions on the issue, he said.

Echoing Obama's words one week ago, Gilani said the death of Bin Laden was "justice done" but added: "We are not naive enough to declare victory."

Afterwards jeering broke out among the opposition benches before Chaudhry Nisar Ali, leader of the opposition in parliament, stood up to speak, saying: "I have not heard a single word that addresses the deep discontent of the Pakistani people."

Pakistan asks Afghanistan to distance itself from United States, Afghan officials say

Washington Post
Joshua Partlow

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani

KABUL — When Pakistan’s prime minister visited Kabul earlier this month, he spoke grandly to the public of an enduring friendship between neighbors and his country’s commitment to help Afghans in the grinding war with the Taliban.

But in private meetings, Yousaf Raza Gillani and the leaders of Pakistan’s military and intelligence service offered a startling proposal for cooperation: The Afghan government should distance itself from the United States and seek new allies, particularly China, according to current and former Afghan officials with knowledge of the meeting.

Gillani read to President Hamid Karzai from a paper outlining Pakistan’s view that the U.S. military strategy had no prospect for success, that its troops antagonized the region and that the Afghan government should avoid any agreement that allows long-term American military bases in Afghanistan, according to the Afghans.

Because of the growing fiscal problems in the United States, Gillani argued, America was a power in decline, one without the ability to support Afghanistan and Pakistan in the future, and Afghans should look “for alternative allies,” said one senior Afghan official.

“That was the first time that the whole Pakistani state, military and civilian, spoke to us with one voice. That is important,” the Afghan official said. “If a country comes and puts its conditions on the table, we have to take that seriously.”

Although Pakistan is a U.S. ally, top Pakistani officials have long been deeply disdainful of U.S. policy in the region, and have been hedging their bets in case U.S. efforts in Afghanistan fail. Pakistan’s overture to the Afghan government — if Afghan accounts are accurate — marks one of the clearest signals to date that Pakistan is moving away from its partnership with the United States.

A spokesman for Gillani denied that the Pakistanis delivered any such message but would not discuss the content of the meeting. “Whatever you’re saying is not true,” Shabir Anwar said.

Pakistan’s foreign affairs ministry released a statement Wednesday saying that “Pakistan recognizes the key role of the United States in promoting stability, peace and harmony in Afghanistan.”

Obama administration officials said their reading of the meeting differed sharply from that of the Afghan officials. “Although the Pakistanis did caution the Afghans not to become too dependent on the Americans,” one official said, “they were reaching out to the Karzai government in a way that suggested they thought the time was right to move toward some kind of political settlement.”

“The good news,” the official said, “is that I think that there’s some prospect that Afghanistan will become the common ground on which the U.S. and Pakistan” can solidify their relationship.

The meeting, details of which were first reported in Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal, has sparked considerable debate in recent days among various factions in the Afghan government. Some see Pakistan’s offer as a turning point in the relationship with the two countries and one that shows promise. Others distrust Pakistan’s motives and believe Afghanistan cannot afford to abandon the United States in favor of partnerships with China, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

Karzai’s chief of staff, Abdul Karim Khuram, called the meeting “historic” but would not go into the details about the discussions.

“Now we know what Pakistan wants,” he said in an interview.