Pakistan condemns bin Laden raid

Members of Pakistan’s parliament condemned the US today for the raid that killed al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden on their soil.

They also demanded that an independent commission investigate the debacle instead of one led by the country’s powerful armed forces.

The parliamentary resolution followed a rare, private session with top military officials that began yesterday and ran past midnight.

During the session, Pakistani intelligence chief Lt Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha indicated he would be willing to resign if lawmakers demanded it, but no one did.

In fact, it appeared lawmakers from the weak civilian government and the opposition essentially closed ranks behind a military establishment humiliated by the May 2 attack on bin Laden’s compound in the north west garrison city of Abbottabad. Pakistani leaders have insisted they had no idea bin Laden was staying in the city.

Few lawmakers were willing to discuss details of the confidential session, but the hours it covered suggested that the generals were questioned extensively – a rarity in a country where the military operates largely beyond civilian control and has staged multiple coups.

Lt Gen. Pasha spoke at length, and defended the military’s record in fighting Islamist extremist movements, some of which have staged numerous deadly attacks on Pakistani soil.

He admitted negligence in tracing bin Laden, but also noted that Pakistan had cooperated with the US in helping kill or capture numerous bin Laden allies, severely diminishing al Qaida’s terrorist infrastructure.

Bin Laden was like a “dead person despite being alive,” federal information minister Firdous Ashiq Awan quoted the intelligence chief as saying.

When asked why the CIA was able to track bin Laden, the spy chief said the US agency had managed to acquire more human sources in Pakistan than the Pakistani agencies because it paid informants far better, according to a lawmaker who attended the session.

“Where we pay 10,000 rupees, they pay 10,000,” the lawmaker described Lt Gen Pasha as saying.

The parliamentary resolution that emerged from the gathering termed the US raid as an attack on Pakistan’s sovereignty.

It also criticised the American missile strikes in Pakistan’s militant-riddled tribal areas, and said the government should consider preventing US and Nato supply trucks from using land routes in Pakistan if the strikes continue. Many analysts have long suspected that Pakistan secretly allows the drone attacks while publicly denouncing them.

The resolution also called for an independent body to look into the bin Laden raid. Earlier in the week, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said the military would lead the inquiry, but that upset opposition leaders.

Mr Awan told state-run Pakistan TV that lawmakers had expressed full confidence in the country’s security forces.