LONDON – Rejecting accusations that Islamabad was complicit in sheltering Osama bin Laden, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has said the fact the late Qaeda leader was able to live undetected for so long in Pakistan was down to a universal “intelligence failure”, reported The Guardian on Thursday.
Speaking after the one-year anniversary of Osama’s killing, Gilani rejected claims Pakistan had secretly known he was living in the garrison city of Abbottabad. US special forces killed bin Laden on 5th May last year during a raid on his heavily fortified villa.
“There is no complicity. I think it’s an intelligence failure from all over the world,” Gilani said in an interview with the Guardian. He denied suggestions that elements within military may have been aware of bin Laden’s hideout. He added: “Why should we do that? We have suffered the most.”
Gilani declined to say exactly what his intelligence services had gleaned from bin Laden’s wives and children, who left Pakistan for Saudi Arabia last month after a year in custody. Nor would he comment on 17 documents seized at the Abbottabad compound and selectively released by Washington last week. “We have a judicial commission probing into that,” he said.
Relations with the UK were ‘excellent’, he observed. He argued that Pakistan was “part of the solution, not part of the problem” when it came to the “global issue” of fighting terrorism. “Osama bin Laden wasn’t a Pakistani,” he pointed out. The prime minister said the US had fuelled the problem by abandoning its ally Pakistan once the Soviets had been driven from Afghanistan. “The vacuum was filled by militants,” he said.
Gilani also made clear his country had been the biggest loser from two decades of war and turmoil in neighbouring Afghanistan, and from the growing menace of extremism at home: “Pakistan has paid a huge price. Some 35,000 people have been martyred. 5,000 police and soldiers have been killed.” In addition, Pakistan was now “catering for the needs” of 3.6 million Afghan refugees.
Gilani was upbeat about relations with Washington. He admitted recent relations with the Obama administration hadn’t been “too normal” but said the CIA and ISI were still working hard together to wipe out – or “achieve”, as he put it – high-level targets. But he claimed it was practically impossible to police the mountainous Afghan-Pakistan border, where thousands crossed every day. “We don’t know if they are tourists or militants,” he said.
The prime minister refused to say whether the Taliban should play a role in a future national unity government in Kabul, or were integral to a political solution in Afghanistan. Instead, he said, Islamabad supported political reconciliation in Afghanistan so long as it was “Afghan-owned and Afghan-led.” Of Pakistan’s role, he said: “We are a facilitator.” He was surprisingly upbeat about relations with Delhi and spoke warmly of India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Islamabad was “serious” about resolving all core issues with India, including Kashmir and the heavily militarised Siachen glacier.
The prime minister was amusingly scathing about Imran Khan, the cricketer-turned-politician, who will challenge People’s Party (PPP) in next year’s elections, and has a growing following among young people. Asked whether Khan might eventually become prime minister, he replied: “If he [Khan] wins his own seat.” He added: “He’s a good cricketer. But he has no future in Pakistan.”