ISLAMABAD – Pakistan’s opposition leader has accused the country’s powerful Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency of negligence and incompetence.
The allegation came as the country’s former president said rogue members of the security establishment may have helped Osama bin Laden hide for years near Islamabad.
Nawaz Sharif, who heads Pakistan’s largest opposition group, rejected a government decision to put an army general in charge of the inquiry into intelligence lapses that led to bin Laden’s killing.
Sparing the government and its leaders in his tirade over the breach of Pakistan’s sovereignty by American forces, Mr Sharif said it was the “worst case of negligence and incompetence” by the security agencies. “It is matter of serious concern that our security institutions knew nothing when the helicopter gunships and commandos remained in our territory and airspace for so long,” he said, calling for a judicial commission to lead the investigation to dispel doubts about its objectivity.
Mr Sharif also bemoaned the damage that the incident had caused to Pakistan’s reputation abroad. “Isn’t it true that the world considers us as a country that abets and exports terrorism?” he said. “Isn’t it true that all crimes everywhere in the world have links with our home?”
Former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf, an army general who seized power in 1999 and now lives in exile in London, told the ABC News network that there was a possibility that rogue junior officers in the country’s intelligence and military might have been aware of bin Laden’s whereabouts for years.
“It’s really appalling that he was there and nobody knew,” he said. “But a rogue element within is a possibility. The possibility . . . , at the lower level, somebody following a policy of his own and violating the policy from above.”
Pakistan’s ISI has a history of contacts with Islamist militants.
The country rejects allegations that it was either incompetent in tracking down bin Laden or complicit in hiding him.
“We wouldn’t be naive enough to be complicit in this affair. We would be risking not only the future of our country, but also the future of our children,” a senior security official said.
– (Reuters)