Senators on Thursday criticised the US for accusing Pakistan of being incompetent and being an accomplice to Osama Bin Laden’s presence in Abbotabad, as the House continued to debate the US operation in Pakistani soil for the second consecutive day. The senators denounced the statement by CIA chief Leon Panetta who accused Pakistan of being either an accomplice or incompetent after a wrangling between the opposition and treasury benches over the sequence of agenda items.
Raza Rabbani criticised the CIA chief’s statement, saying Pakistan was neither an accomplice nor incompetent in the war against terrorism. He recalled that 58 terrorists, including top al Qaeda leader Al-Libbi, had been arrested by Pakistani agencies. Rejecting the assertion that the failure to track Osama bin Laden was incompetence if not complicity, he asked Panetta why CIA had not averted the 9/11 attacks if it was competent enough itself.
He called the US operation a shameful act and an open challenge for the territorial sovereignty of Pakistan. He said it was parliament’s job to find out reasons and factors behind the “major failure” and said Pakistan should brace up for a possible backlash. Rabbani said propaganda was being done to portray Pakistan as the epic centre of terrorism, adding that parliament would exert pressure on the government for the implementation of the resolutions of the joint session of parliament. He said all democratic parties in and out of parliament were on the same page over the issue.
PML-N’s Ishaq Dar criticised the Indian army chief for his remarks that India could also carry out such attacks inside Pakistan and warned India against any misadventure. Abdul Rasheed called the Abbottabad raid a drama meant to weaken Pakistan. He said the unauthorised operation by US forces on Pakistani soil was a matter of concern. National Party President Dr Abdul Malik claimed that the Shamsi and Shahbaz airbases were still under US control and called for the country’s shift from security state to a welfare state. ANP’s Afrasiab Khatak called for a review of the national security policy.
“We cannot afford to live in a permanent state of war”, he remarked. Rehmatullah Kakar called the operation an insult hurled at the people of Pakistan and a breach of the country’s territorial sovereignty. Earlier, an interesting situation developed in the House when Senator Ishaq Dar and Professor Khurshid objected to the sequence of the agenda, where discussion on the presidential address was put before discussion on the Abbottabad incident.
Leader of the House Syed Nayyar Hussain Bokhari was of the view that discussion on the presidential address should be taken up first in accordance with the agenda, but many other members stressed that the current issue should be taken up first.
