The Aljazeera TV shocked everyone by publishing the 2nd May
Abbottabad Commission Report. As soon as the report came up, the Pakistani
media started discussing it in its talk shows from different angles. Two
important questions were commonly asked, firstly how the report traveled to Aljazeera,
and secondly why the commission did not fix the responsibility on anyone. Although
the government of Pakistan claims that this is fake report, it has not yet officially
released the “original” one to support its claim.
On the 2nd May, 2010, the US marines conducted a secret
operation in Abbottabad Pakistan, killed Osama Bin Laden and successfully
carried his dead body with them. Our secret agencies and the security forces
remained in complete darkness regarding the presence of Osama as well as the US
operation to catch him. Before this operation, there had already been a perception
in the western world that the Pakistani secret service ISI had been logistically
supporting and providing shelter to Al-Quaida and Taliban leaders. Consequently,
there was a general assumption that Bin Ladin could be found somewhere in the
tribal areas of Pakistan. However, the Pakistani political and military
leaderships had always denied these charges.
But, the “discovery” of the most wanted person from Abbottabad, a
militarily sensitive area, put Pakistan into really a big trouble as this, to a
big extent, was endorsing the allegations leveled about sheltering Osama. Consequently,
Pakistan was in the danger of being isolated and facing the reactionary sanctions
from the western world especially by USA. It should also be noticed here that,
as per the media reports, immediately after the successful operation, the US
officials very clearly said to Pakistan, “Either you are involved in it or are
quite incompetent.” Avoiding the first possibility, the Chief of Army Staff
immediately accepted the reality and declared the presence of Osama in
Abbottabad as the failure of the Pakistani agencies.
Frankly speaking, Pakistan was unaware of the 2nd May, operation
unless the helicopter crashed and the American government declared its great
victory. According to the Pakistan Air Force officials, their radars could not
detect the American helicopters as they were equipped with the stealth
technology. The question is, if the helicopter had not crashed and the USA
officials had not declared anything about the presence of Osama, would Pakistan
have known anything about the operation?
When this is the level of our incompetence, will this question not
rise that how many times else similar operations would have been conducted
secretly by the USA in Pakistan but the Pakistani armed forces and agencies remained
unaware of them??
The PAF officials further explained that leaving the stealth
technology aside, their “response time” was about only 4 to 5 minutes (The
“response time” is the time duration between receiving the information that the
enemy`s plane has entered into the Pakistani air space and sending the PAF
fighter plane to counter it).
To some extent, this could have been accepted
as it was a good response time. But, unfortunately, the attack of the NATO
planes at the Salala check post in which about 24 Pakistani troops were martyred
revealed the reality of the PAF’s claim. The NATO planes kept attacking the
Pakistani check post for more than 30 minutes, but the PAF warplanes could not
arrive on the spot in time in order to help the Pakistani troops.
Taking into all these, should the Pakistani nation not be
seriously concerned over the security matters of the country? Moreover, in the
scenario where our defense analysts have been pointing towards the increasing
security threats to Pakistan, are these weaknesses not drawing a picture of our
feeble defense? On top of it, now do we deserve to claim anymore that our
nuclear assets are safe? These
were the areas of our incompetency that the Abbotabad commission had to look
into and was supposed to fix responsibilities accordingly.
However, this was only one side of the picture dealing with the incompetency.
But, what if the allegations of the ISI’s involvement in the presence of Osama turn
out to be true? If it is so, we cannot even think of the consequences that our country
may have to face. According to the international media reports, the Americans have
been seriously trying to find the links between the presence of Osama and the
Pakistani military establishment.
Therefore, no matter if the presence of Osama and the secret operation
of the Americans were the result of the incompetence of our secret agencies
forces (as admitted by Gen. Kiyani) or, on the other hand, they were themselves
involved in it, the Abbotabad Commission was supposed to have investigated the both
possibilities and to have given its recommendations not only in respect of
fixing the responsibilities, but also for taking the indispensible measures so
as to avoid such kind of most awkward situation in future.
It is wise better to set our house in order by ourselves before any
outside force gets a chance to direct us for this. Drone attacks are the most pertinent
example in this context that we did not reform ourselves and, as a result, Pakistan
is facing not only the drone attacks, but also the reactionary terrorism from
Taliban. Therefore, if this is the fake report, the original one must
investigate all these aspects and fix the relevant responsibilities to the
people who put the whole country into the biggest trouble. However, if the “original”
commission report just tries to sweep the dust under the rug as in the past, it
means we are ignoring the extremely serious implications of the statement of a
US official in which he said,
“We are sure that there was a group of people which was already
aware of the fact that Osama had been hiding in Pakistan. Who was that, we are
trying to find out”. May God save Pakistan!
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