Pakistanis still in the dark over Bin Laden raid

Two years on, the federal government has kept the people of Pakistan in the dark about the events which took place during the alleged raid by a United States (US) special forces unit on the night falling between May 1 and May 2, 2011, that killed al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and two of his close aides at his compound in Abbottabad.
Pakistan has a long history of keeping reports on judicial commissions of high-profile assassinations. The report on assassination of the first prime minister of the country, Liaquat Ali Khan, has never been made public, and the government took around 20 odd years to make public the Hamoodur Rehman Commission report on the 1971 war and the separation of East Pakistan.
The US raid in Abbottabad, which was called by the government and the establishment as an attack on the sovereignty of the country, had left Pakistan-US relations strained for about a year.
Yousuf Raza Gilani, the then prime minister of the country, had formed a five-member judicial commission to probe the incident on June 21, 2011. However, the commission took one-and-a-half-year to submit its report to the prime minister. Finally, the report was submitted to the then prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, on January 3, 2012, which to date has not been made public.
Although sketchy details of the raid on Bin Laden’s compound have surfaced, mainly through foreign media reports, no official version of investigations is public knowledge.
The much awaited 700-page Abbottabad Commission report was presented to premier Ashraf without any official word on whether, and when, the report would be made public.
Excerpts from the report that leaked into press narrate a different account of the raid than what the US narrative claims. The report narrates how Bin Laden had advised his family members to pray during the raid for safety. It also details the role played by Dr Shakil Afridi in the campaign to hunt down the world’s most wanted man.
President of the commission Justice (r) Javed Iqbal shed light on the salient features of the report that had been finalised back in October, 2012, but could not be submitted as a member of the commission was receiving treatment abroad.
“The prime minister appreciated the efforts and hard work of the chairman and his team in compilation of this report,” said a statement on January 3. The praise for the commission’s job raised several eyebrows as the commission submitted its report almost 19 months after it was formed, and 20 months after the infamous raid had been made by US forces.
A row between the law ministry and the commission had further delayed the report as law ministry officials had said the report that was finalised in October 2012, could not be submitted to the prime minister because one of the commission’s members, former inspector general of police Abbas Khan, was undergoing heart treatment in the US and was not available for his signatures over the report’s contents.
The law ministry had advised the commission’s chairman to de-notify its ailing member. Abbas Khan recently returned home and after his signatures, the report was submitted with the premier.
The commission had recorded statements of the heads of military and civil intelligence agencies, the military operations director general, Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington, present and former foreign ministers, secretaries and family members of Osama bin Laden before finalising the report.