Leader of the opposition in National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has expressed concerns that the government has not taken him into confidence on formation of commission to probe Abbottat operation as envisaged in the joint resolution of the parliament and also did not consider his proposals in this regard.
The probe commission formed in light of joint resolution passed by the in-camera session of the two houses of the Parliament on May 14, 2011, the leader of the opposition stated that he was not consulted on the formation of the probing commission into the US unilateral raid, in which, top Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed on May 2.
The joint resolution concluded with recommendation saying "the composition/modalities of the Commission will be settled after consultations between the Leader of the House and the Leader of the Opposition," calling upon the government to appoint an independent Commission on the Abbottabad operation to fix responsibility and recommend necessary measures to ensure that such an incident does not recur.
The leader of the opposition, however, voiced his reservations saying that neither the government had consulted him in the formation of the probe commission nor it took him into confidence.
In his letter sent to Prime Minister Gilani on May 18, 2011 and released to the media on Wednesday, Chaudhry Nisar suggested seven names to be included in the commission i.e. former Justice Shafi-ur-Rehman, former Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid, former Justice Fakhruddin G Ibrahim, Majeed Nizami, Mehmood Khan Achakzai, Asma Alamgir and former Justice Bhagwan Das. "I will be sending you names of other proposed members separately," he wrote in the letter.
Whereas, the government commission notified on Tuesday comprised Justice Javed Iqbal, Judge of Supreme Court of Pakistan as its head while former Justice Fakhuruddin G Ibrahim, Lieutenant General Nadeem Ahmed (retd) former Chairman NDMA, Abbas Khan former IG, Police Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Ashraf Jahangir Qazi former Ambassador, as its members. The five-member-commission contains only one name-former Justice Fakhuruddin G Ibrahim, proposed by the leader of the opposition and is also silent to be framed under an act of the parliament.
"The Commission should be constituted under the commission of inquiry Act 1956 ("The Act")", demanded the leader of the opposition in his letter.
About the terms of reference of the commission, he suggested that these should be to ascertain the full facts regarding the presence of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan and the US operation on May 2, 2011; to determine the nature and causes of failures of the civil and military authorities in dealing with matter relating thereto; to determine whether there are any agreements, tacit or explicit for allowing such US operations in Pakistani territory, and whether such agreements are legally and constitutionally valid; and to fix responsibility for and propose actions against persons responsible for the said failures compromising, dignity, self-respect and sovereignty of Pakistan and recommend remedial measures.
The letter, a copy of which is also available with Business Recorder, further stated that the commission may, for the effective performance of its functions, co-opt and summon any person in the services of Pakistan and any other person to render such assistance to the commission as it may require. The commission shall formulate its own procedure as may be deemed necessary and shall have all the powers conferrable on a commission under the Act 1956 ("The Act"), the leader of the opposition further mentioned in the letter, adding the commission shall complete its inquiry and submit its report to the parliament within a period of 30 days of its notification.
The government commission, however, is silent over the time period for completion of the inquiry and submission of its report to the parliament as well as its mandate to fix responsibility for and propose action against the persons for their failure to safeguard self-respect and sovereignty of Pakistan.