ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s powerful military and its intelligence establishment have been hauled up by a panel that probed the presence of Osama bin Laden in the country saying the former al-Qaeda chief was able to stay on its soil since mid-2002 due to “collective failure, culpable negligence and gross incompetence”.
According to the Abbottabad Commission’s investigations, Pakistan’s intelligence establishment had “closed the book” on bin Laden by 2005, and was no longer actively pursuing intelligence that could lead to his capture.
Moreover, it found that there had been a complete collapse of governance and law enforcement – a situation it termed “Government Implosion Syndrome”, both in the lack of intelligence on bin Laden’s nine-year stay in Pakistan, and in the response to the US raid that killed him.
The 337-page classified document finds that “culpable negligence and incompetence at almost all levels of government can more or less be conclusively established”.
“Abbotabad Commission” report has been authored by former Supreme Court judge Javed Iqbal who was appointed by the government as chief of a five member team to trace down how bin Laden lived and was killed without official knowledge.
Dawn said that the report was particularly critical of premier spy agency ISI for being so causal in first tracking bin Laden and then investigating the US attack which killed him on May 2.
Bin Laden compound in Abbotabad, over 100 kilometers from capital Islamabad, was located close to Pakistan Military Academy (PMA), the nursery of all officers of military, where he lived for about five years since 2005.
Dawn says that the report was also critical of PMA commandant, an army major general, for obstructing the working civilian law enforcement agencies in its area.
The Express Tribune said that civil and military leadership should “apologies” for their failure, but did not fix the responsibility on a single or group of persons.
“It is unnecessary to specify the names as its obvious who they are,” the paper quoted the report. “It may be politically unrealistic to suggest punishments for them. But as honorable men, they ought to do the Honorable thing, including submitting a formal apology to the nation for their dereliction”.
It says that those individuals who wielded authority and influence in the decision making in the country bear responsibility for creating circumstances which resulted in the May 2 incident. The commission gives interesting details based on investigation of his wives.
It shows that at few times the chief fugitive had close brush with Pakistan law enforcing agencies, including once in Swat where his car was stopped by police for overspeeding but the driver quickly settled the issue.-PTI
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