Spearheading another controversy, Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain on Saturday backtracked from his party’s stance over the formation of the Abbottabad Commission, calling it “unnecessary”.
“It is unnecessary to form an independent commission to probe the Abbottabad incident… the incident should be probed internally by the armed forces under the chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee… the judiciary should not be dragged into such technical and security-related issues,” Shujaat said in a statement issued from his residence.
Shujaat is the second mainstream parliamentary leader after JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman who has backtracked from their parties’ vote in favour of the formation of an independent commission to probe the May 2 US raid in Abbottabad that killed al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
He said PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif had used such a language against the army which even the enemies of the country had never used.
“Who does he want to please by using such a language in the prevailing circumstances… Sharif’s statements reflect he wants to exploit differences between the army and the US military establishment,” Shujaat said, adding that the PML-N chief wanted to please the US by putting pressure on the army for his vested interests.
Last week, despite being a signatory to parliament’s unanimous resolution that sought formation of an independent commission to probe the Abbottabad incident, the JUI-F back paddled from its demand when Fazlur Rehman opposed any commission to probe the Abbottabad incident.
Addressing a press conference after a three-day meeting of the JUI-F Majlis-e-Shura, Fazl said, “If a commission is formed to probe the Abbottabad incident, it will have two choices: it can say that Pakistani forces were unaware of the clandestine US operation or they connived with the US action. If the first judgment is given, it will malign the Pakistan Army and if the second is given, the whole country will have to account for it and face the consequences,” Fazl said, adding that if he had been in the country, he would have advised the government not to form any commission.