NEWS ANALYSIS
The Abbottabad Inquiry: Nawaz Sharif 's Valid Demand
Nasim Zehra
The PML-N whose fortunes in the recent months, marked by reactive, angry and dull politics and confronted by Asif Ali Zardari's incredible political cunning, have been on a downward trajectory . However in the post Abbottabad Operation period, Nawaz Sharif has responded to the national challenge that now confronts us, in a statesmanlike fashion.
Of the following three options to conduct a national inquiry into the fiasco Nawaz Sharif opted for the third option seeking its execution within a realistic time-frame.
Lets examine all three options to see the merit in the third option
Option 1 is the existing inquiry Commission headed by the Adjutant-General which the army had first announced and the Prime Minister endorsed in his May 9 parliament speech. For obvious reasons such an inquiry, whose primary task would be to hold an investigation on the intelligence and security failure, will have little credibility if the head of the inquiry belongs to the very institution whose performance is in question.
Option 2 could have been a Parliamentary Commission with representatives from all elected parties. Perhaps the existing bipartisan Parliamentary Committee on National Security could have been tasked to hold the inquiry into the US's clandestine Abbottabad Operation. While such an option would have been in the spirit of parliamentary politics, in all likelihood there would be no substantive outcome of such an inquiry because most parliamentary parties do not appear to be in the mood of seriously examining Pakistan's own failures connected to the Abbottabad operation. The statements made by political leaders across the board shows they are all satisfied waxing eloquent about violation of our national sovereignty and the opposition parties including opposition men including JUI, Imran Khan and shah Mahmood Qureshi asking for the president and the Prime Minister's resignation. The government itself has decided to adopt a hands-off approach on the internal dimension of the Abbottabad operation. The Prime Minister's May 9 speech in the parliament was a hotch -potch of historical recall about Osama's evolution, some contradictory statements about the United States role and finally a desperate effort to convince the army that there would be no accountability initiated by the civilian government. In fact , in what will go down as one of the most terrible speech of Yusuf raza Gaillani's political career, he announced that the army's response to the Abbottabad Operation was "adequate" and that while there was complete unity among all national institutions, the media was playing a divisive and negative role ! Maybe in his 'all-praise for the security Establishment' mode, the PM overlooked the fact that the army itself had acknowledged in an ISPR press release, that there had been a security and intelligence lapse. Equally interesting was the fact that at instead of standing by the elected Prime Minister and being present in the parliament when he was making an important speech concerning the army, the army chief was visiting garrisons and complaining about lack of information made available to the media and hence to the public. The army chief, has been doing the garrison rounds to deal with the restive troops who are raising question regarding the Abbottabad fiasco. But our Prime Minister , perhaps tutored by the Foreign Office and the GHQ officials, would have us believe that essentially all is well on the internal front. That there is no need for accountability. Essentially operating in the same vein, it seems that most parties represented in the parliamentary Committee on national Security, did not deem it necessary to call for the setting up of an independent inquiry commission to investigate the Abbottabad fiasco. Not a word on May 9 from the Committtee Chairman Senator Raza Rabbani on an Inquiry commission when he addressed the media after the Conmmittee's meeting.
Against this backdrop where parliamentarians, either because of how the army has sent packing those who have even talked of holding independent inquiries on military –related fiascos( Prime Ministers Junejo and Nawaz Sharif over Ojhri Camp and Kargil) or perhaps playing power politics the old way of seeking GHQ support, are in no mood to hold the security establishment accountable, opting for a parliamentary committee would have been a less than wise option. It would have become a casualty of political point-scoring by the politicians.
Option 3 , invoking the Inquiry and Commission Act of 1957, set up a judicial Commission to hold an inquiry. The Commission demanded by Nawaz Sharif, headed by the CJP with High Court CJs as its members and with the authority to call in any office holder or official from any institution perhaps is likely to present a more credible report to the government and to the people of Pakistan. The judicial commission can also call independent security and intelligence experts to enhance its capacity and credibility while conducting the inquiry.
The judicial commission's report must be made public and the elected government should implement its recommendations.
Perhaps the only criticism of establishing a judicial commission would be that the judiciary is yet again being encouraged to play an expanded role, and this time at the cost of the parliament's role. In principle this maybe correct, but not in substance. In substance, a parliamentary Committee would play politics instead of conducting a fair inquiry while the judiciary and especially the CJP, beholden partially to general Kayani for his restoration, would be constrained to opt for fair play. The Commission would be in sharp public focus compelling it to competently implement its mandate.
Such a judicial commission set up by the government would obviously not amount to judicial activism but would indeed be viewed as the judiciary performing its Constitutional role.
The ball is now in the PM's court. In his senate speech he had undertaken to consider any proposals made by the Opposition to deal with the post Abbottabad crisis. With the objective of identifying and fixing our own internal institutional and policy-making weaknesses, Nawaz Sharif's proposal for a Judicial Commission is worth adopting.
NZ
From: FPCCI Malik Sohail <malick.sohail.hussain@gmail.com>
Sender: media-tribe@googlegroups.com
Date: Thu, 12 May 2011 14:00:24 +0500
To: <Pakistan-MEDIA@yahoogroups.com>
ReplyTo: malick.sohail.hussain@gmail.com
Cc: <Media-Tribe@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Media Tribe> News Urdu/English---Trading community rejects propaganda against armed forces, ISI
Trading community rejects propaganda against armed forces, ISI
We stand by guardians of ideological and geographical frontiers
Conspiracies adding to instability, hurting businesses
Dated: May 12
Islamabad:
The trading community of twin cities on Thursday forcefully rejected lethal propaganda against armed forces and premier spy agency of country terming it a conspiracy of enemies of Pakistan to defame the national institutions.
Some elements are busy in fuelling anger among masses to grind their own axes at the cost of national unity and stability which is also hurting the business environment, it said.
Business community condemn the well-orchestrated move against the guardians of ideological and geographical borders aimed at discrediting them, said Chairman FPCCI Standing Committee Media and PR Malik Sohail while speaking at a hurriedly called meeting in Blue Area.
We want to give a strong message that whole nation stands by army and Inter Services Intelligence (ISI). Such tricks will fail to create a gulf between masses and armed forces.
Malik Sohail Hussain, who is also Vice President of Quami Tajir Ittehad said that enemies are cultivating doubts in the minds aimed at weakening the country which will not be resisted.
Instead of succumbing to the negative propaganda, it is our national duty to expose the hidden hands behind the conspiracies and show the real picture to the people, he said.
Business community rejects the doomsday scenario painted by western think tanks, research institutes, so called intellectuals and sponsored studies; it is our duty to come forward to stop it, he said.
Raja Hammad Bin Arif, Syed Siraj Agha, Malik Aurangzeb Awan, Malik Sagheer Ahmed, Syed Amin Pirzada, Haji Muhammad Naeem, Yusuf Rajput, Shahid Alam, Asad Khan, Kamran Abbasi, Arshad Abbasi and other business leaders were also present in the meeting.
They said that international media has become part of the conspiracy against Pakistan but no one believes their cloudy statements and questionable findings.
It is obvious that many elements are being funded by enemy countries for a targeted campaign but masses would take their facts as fiction because such ploys are not new.
Many politicians and pseudo intellectually have been predicting since decades that Pakistan is not economically, geographically, politically, racially or culturally viable but it is still on the map and will continue to be, the trade leaders said.
Spy agencies of enemy nations have been engaged since long in violent subversive activities to create social and political unrest in Pakistan but they will achieved nothing, said Malik Sohail Hussain.
Our country is passing through difficult times; every Pakistani is bound to act against the adverse propaganda about motherland's future to quell general frustrations, he said.
--
Malik Sohail Hussain
Chairman FPCCI Standing
Committee on Media and PR
Cell 03215155500 and 03335155300
FPCCI +92-51-2251891-3. Fax +92-51-251894
--
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It is a common platform for journalists and all others who are interested in knowing about the issues that are sometimes not reported. This group favours philosophy of progress, reform and the protection of civil liberties. Please share and educate others. The owners and managers of this site do not necessarily agree with any of the information. It is an open forum; everyone is allowed to share anything. Mails sent by members and non-members are subject to approval. However, we are not responsible in any way for the contents of mails / opinion sent by members. We do not guarantee that the information will be completely accurate. (Nor can print and electronic media). If you find content on this site which you feel is inappropriate or inaccurate, incomplete, or useless you are most welcome to report it or contradict it.
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