The leaked bbottabad Commission
Report is the ongoing hot topic. It has reopened the wounds that had begun to
heal. A little over two years ago the US Navy SEALs mounted in four Blackhawk
stealth helicopters had secretly intruded into Pakistan airspace on late night
of May 1/2, 2011. After killing Osama bin Laden (OBL) in his compound in
Abbottabad the raiders took away his body and later dumped it in the sea. When
the people got up in the morning, to their horror they learnt that the most
wanted man was residing in Abbottabad for the last six years and that the US
raiding team after accomplishing its mission had got away unnoticed and
uncontested.
It was the blackest day for Pakistan and everyone felt deeply hurt that
Pakistan’s so-called ally had stabbed Pakistan in the back by grossly violating
Pakistan’s sovereignty. People were equally angry with our security forces for
failing to strike down the raiding helicopters. The startling news was highly
agonizing for those in Pakistan who idolized OBL. To rub salt in the wounded
pride of the shocked nation, President Zardari and PM Gilani instead of
condemning the unilateral US act and terming it as an act of war, eulogized it.
It was puzzling as to how Zardari managed to get his article in praise of the US
action published in Washington Post on 2 May.
Our media too got fixated on failure of military and intelligence agencies and
underplayed the aggressive act of the US. It promoted the US theme that the
military establishment was either complicit or incompetent. Paid writers
suggested that OBL was actively involved in guiding al-Qaeda terrorist
activities. Role of a foreign NGO ‘Save the Children’ patronized by CIA and its
utilization of Dr Shakil Afridi to carryout fake polio vaccination program to
ascertain presence of OBL in Abbottabad and existence of CIA network came to
light.
The way OBL was hastily buried under mysterious circumstances gave rise to
speculations that it was a false flag operation to undermine Pak Army, Air Force
and ISI and to defame Pakistan. To assuage the anger of the public, PM Gilani
held a joint session of the Parliament on May 12 in which DG ISI Lt Gen Pasha
was asked to explain about the security lapse. Army chief Gen Kayani attended
the rowdy session, in which the opposition wanted to roll the heads of Army, Air
Force and ISI chiefs.
Setting up four-member Commission headed by retired Justice Javed Iqbal in July
2011 was another step to mollify the temper of the people. The Commission was
mandated to determine why OBL’s presence couldn’t be discovered, why the US raid
couldn’t be detected and to apportion blame. It took the Commission two years to
complete the investigations. Presumably, the draft prepared by one of the
members Jahangir Ashraf Qazi in October 2012 was objected to by another member
Lt Gen Nadeem Ahmad for being too vindictive. Final draft was watered down and
submitted to former PM Raja Ashraf on January 2, 2013 which including the
dissenting note of Qazi. Instead of sharing it with the public, a Parliamentary
Committee was formed. Al-Jazeera TV leaked the draft of Qazi and not the final
version approved by Chairman Justice Iqbal.
It may be recalled that Pakistan’s sovereignty was violated by the US on 2 May
at a time when Pakistan’s sovereignty had already been compromised because of
total subservience to the US dictates. The reins of the country were in the
hands of NRO cleansed and US installed government. It had broken all previous
records of corruption, poor governance and incompetence, had sunk all economic
indicators in negative and brought economy at the brink of collapse. Zardari by
virtue of holding two portfolios of presidency and co-chairmanship of PPP had
become the most powerful president and had reduced the parliament into a dummy.
He blunted the process of accountability to give a free hand to his corrupt and
inefficient cronies holding important posts to empty the national kitty and to
destroy state corporations. Under the skewed policy of selective national
reconciliation, corruption, crime and lawlessness thrived.
The corrupt were protected and the honest officials sidelined while the police
was politicized and mostly employed on VIP duties, and complicit with terrorist
groups and mafias. Civil agencies had taken up a backseat and had shifted the
whole burden of internal and external security on ISI and MI. Dysfunctional
government and ineffective state organs forced ISI and MI to take on onerous job
of counterterrorism outside its realm of responsibilities. There was no
coordination and cooperation between military and civil agencies.
Gen Musharraf had initially opened the doors for CIA, FBI and US officials to
scan Pakistan at will. On September 26, 2001, Altaf Hussain had sought ISI’s
disbandment and in return offered the services of MQM to do the bidding of
Britain. Zardari led team in which MQM was again the coalition partner went two
steps ahead in granting the US liberty to micro manage Pakistan’s internal and
external policies. ANP chief Asfandyar Wali had secretly visited Washington in
June 2008 and reportedly had given his commitment to do its bidding.
Rahman Malik and Hussain Haqqani were instrumental in facilitating entry of
Blackwater and establishment of countrywide CIA network in Pakistan to
compromise the overall security apparatus. CIA worked in unison with TTP and
other terrorist groups to achieve its ends. When the ISI started to re-assert
its authority from 2008 onwards, an effort was made to put ISI under Ministry of
Interior and cut it to size.
By forcing the Army to launch major operations in Swat, Shangla, Buner, Dir,
Bajaur and South Waziristan in 2009, 147000 troops got tied down in the
northwest. To keep Washington placated, security forces were pushed to keep
complying with its orders. Kerry Lugar Bill with harmful clauses for Pakistan’s
security was gladly accepted, which paved the way for entry of hundreds of US
paid NGOs filled with CIA spies in the garb of aid coordinators and security
contractors. It led to Raymond Davis incident in January 2011.
Lava of Balochistan under apathetic, corrupt and inefficient government had
reached a boiling point. While police mostly linked with criminals was
ineffective, the FC and ISI were purposely lambasted on account of missing
persons and mutilated bodies of Baloch nationalists. Segment of media was
entirely focused on maligning the image of military and civil-military relations
were tense. The US was unhappy with Gen Kayani for refusing to undertake a major
operation in North Waziristan and was exerting all sorts of pressures. Raid in
Abbottabad, acceleration in drone attacks and stoppage of CSF were link of the
same chain.
When the ISI started to dismantle the CIA network after 2 May incident, attack
on Mehran naval base on May 22, 2011 destroying three PC-3 Orion aircraft
followed by Salala incident on November 26, 2011 took place. When the air force
took defensive measures to guard against violation of airspace from the western
front by placing mobile radars and positioning its Swedish AWACs, CIA planned
Kamra airbase terrorist attack in 2012 to destroy three non-offensive AWACs
parked in foreign built hangers. Attack on Peshawar airbase was again foreign
sponsored. Daredevilry of a lone Army soldier on guard duty thwarted the attack.
Such attacks may occur again since Pakistan doesn’t have the wherewithal to
tackle US technology and satellite communication.
While efforts should be made to analyze the recommendations made by the
Abbottabad Commission and correct the mistakes so that suchlike debacles may not
occur again, a lobby in Pakistan in concert with foreign agencies is engaged in
targeting the Army, Air Force and ISI. It wants rolling of heads and not
rectification. This anti-military establishment lobby is unhappy with the
submitted report in which the Commission has mentioned ‘collective failure’ and
has not blamed individuals and institutions. It infers that the Chairman, Lt Gen
Nadeem and Abbas Khan didn’t perform their duty honestly and conjectures that
military establishment might have exerted its authority to influence the
Commission to tone down the report.
The initial draft prepared by Qazi was intentionally leaked since it was highly
critical of armed forces and ISI and is being played up by vested interests.
This suspicion gets further reinforced with the appearance of another
scandalizing story framed by notorious Umar Cheema. He has made a calculated
effort to smear the reputation of Justice Iqbal and Lt Gen Nadeem by suggesting
that the two collaborated to defeat Qazi’s report. He also casts aspersion on
another member Abbas Khan saying that he feigned illness and prolonged his stay
in USA to avoid signing the report or putting his dissenting note.
Cheema obliquely hints that Nadeem is GHQ and ISI man mandated to cover up their
failings. His suggestion that Nadeem was successfully cultivated by ‘Save the
Children’ NGO and he passed over progress of investigation of the Commission on
regular basis to the Director David Wright and Deputy Director M. Hassan Noor
Saadi of this NGO is insensitive. He claims that all four reports were also
handed over. Purpose behind this character assassination is to discredit Khakis
by disgracing Lt Gen Nadeem and to spoil civil-military relations.
Personally knowing Nadeem, he can be safely counted among few noble and upright
Generals. None can doubt his honesty and integrity. This unholy practice of
demeaning the Khakis on false pretext must end. PEMRA should weed out the black
sheep in media solely interested in material gains.
Asif Haroon Raja
The writer is a retired Brig and a defence analyst. [email protected]
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