Coalition partners want responsibility fixed

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While the leadership of the ruling PPP is keeping mum over the parliamentary demand to form an independent commission to probe into the Abbottabad incident and the attack on PNS Mehran base, its coalition partners seek a proactive approach for setting the house in order before it’s too late, fixing responsibility for the security and intelligence lapses in both the incidents and revisiting the country’s security and foreign policies.
Talking to Pakistan Today, PML-Q Secretary Information Kamil Ali Agha said the May 2 incident was a prelude to disaster to be followed. “The US is building a case against Pakistan and I think the Abbottabad incident was just a conspiracy to prove that Pakistan was a failed nuclear power and that its forces and intelligence were incapable to handle the challenges. What they are trying to prove to the world is that we can’t handle the nuclear assets and Mehran Base attack was also a string of the same conspiracy,” he said.
Agha said the situation demanded the political leadership shun point-scoring and military bashing and sit together to devise a national strategy to face the threat to the very existence of the country and its strategic assets. Asked if he wanted the politicians not to seek accountability of those responsible for the lapses, Agha said his party wanted accountability all those responsible for the security lapses that brought a bad name to the country. “But we should not point fingers at national institutions, rather individuals should be held responsible and some heads must roll,” he said. “My party floated a proposal to revisit the country’s security policy and evolve a national policy with a serious and forward-looking approach that envisaged taking the political leadership of the country on board,” Agha added. Agha said his party wanted implementation of the unanimous resolution adopted by the joint session of parliament on May 14, as only joint political strategy could help the country.
Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) spokesman Wasay Jalil said his party had already called for accountability of the security personnel who were “internal facilitators” of the terrorists. “Altaf Bhai has already questioned the role of the security forces. These incidents have exposed the weaknesses of our forces. Quoting Altaf Hussain, Jalil said terrorism was a disease eating away the country’s infrastructure and strength. He said the political leadership needed to sit together in order to enable the nation face internal and external threats.
Awami National Party (ANP) Senior Vice President Haji Mohammed Adeel told Pakistan Today that his party wanted the formation of an independent commission to fix responsibility of the Abbottabad incident per the spirit of the joint resolution of parliament.
“During the joint session, some members had pointed out that some individuals within the armed forces were hand-in-glove with the terrorists. So we need to revisit our foreign policy and security policy and urgent action is needed to rectify the flaws in both. But this all will only happen once the political leadership sits together to devise a national security strategy,” he said. “The accountability of security officials who failed to safeguard the country’s sovereignty is a must. The ISI DG should have resigned for his failure to hunt down Osama bin Laden,” he said.