Nisar rejects PM’s ‘policy statement’ on Osama raid

Visibly perturbed by the PPP-PML-Q alliance, National Assembly Opposition Leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan started his speech with a controversial turn, as he goaded his party legislators to lock horns unnecessarily with some of the PML-Q ministers as well as Interior Minister Rehman Malik, which left a bad taste for a day otherwise understood as important, since the session had been held especially to reach a joint strategy on the US operation in Abbottabad.
Starting his speech amid loud slogans of “Lotay, Lotay!” by the PML-N, referring to the decision by the PML-Q to join the government, Nisar handed the government his list of questions seeking information about the operation to hunt down Osama bin Laden, saying his party would only attend the in-camera briefing on the Abbottabad operation if the answers were provided on the floor of the House. Nisar launched his tirade against Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani by criticising him for making his address in English instead of Urdu, and for failing to give a satisfactory explanation to the people.
He also took to task President Asif Ali Zardari and Gilani for their initial statements on the US operation, which he said were shameful. “The people on the streets were thinking that the first unanimously elected prime minister of the country would take them into confidence and would tell the US that Pakistan was not ready to remain its slave. We also hoped that after so many days of silence, the premier would tell the House what happened in Abbottabad on May 2 but no answer was given to the nation,” he added.
He also grilled the government for issuance of statements by bin Laden’s wife and daughter regarding their stay in Abbottabad and Haripur, which he said had incited further criticism of Pakistan. In an unexpected turn of events, the treasury decided to pitch Interior Minister Rehman Malik to respond to Nisar. Malik responded in strong words and held PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif responsible for inviting Osama bin Laden to Pakistan. “…Nawaz Sharif met Osama, who provided him Rs 130 billion to topple the PPP government in 1990,” he alleged.
Malik did not stop there, and went on to say that bin Laden was planted by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), who brought him to Pakistan from Sudan in a C-130 aircraft despite the fact that some army officials had objected to the plan, but Nawaz had allowed him into Pakistan. Malik said many details about the Abbottabad operation were still not shared. He said it seemed that someone from the inner circle of Osama had leaked the information to the CIA.
“The Kuwaiti brothers were not from Kuwait, but from Swat. The US commandoes killed both of them on the ground floor [of the compound]. Then they moved to the first floor where they found Osama, who was clad in a Shalwar and a vest. They fired two bullets – one each to the head and chest – and later threw bin Laden’s body into the helicopter,” he added. He said that those who were criticising the army and the intelligence agencies were playing into the hands of foreign elements, adding that “we are sitting here owing to the efforts of both these institutions.”