Five weeks after supporting a parliamentary resolution that sought setting up of an independent commission to probe into the May 2 US raid in Abbottabad, the Pakistain Mohammedan League-Q has called the panel 'unnecessary' and asked the government "not to rush taking decisions under pressure".Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, president of the government-allied PML-Q, suggested in a statement on Saturday that the "most appropriate forum should be an internal inter-services inquiry under the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee which can then report its findings to the parliament and the cabinet".
The statement comes at a time when the government-nominated commission headed by Justice Javed Iqbal, a sitting judge of the Supreme Court, is set to begin its proceedings next week.
It was after almost six hours of intense discussion on May 14 that a joint sitting of both houses of parliament had reached a consensus on the 12-point resolution, asking the government to set up an independent commission to investigate the covert US operation that killed the late Osama bin Laden
... who no longer has to waste time and energy breathing...
in his Abbottabad hideout.
Chaudhry Shujaat said on Saturday it was wrong to involve judiciary in all issues, "including such technical areas like intelligence or related security issues".
He observed that "accountability should not become a witch-hunt or an organised campaign to malign or defame a respected and popular national institution like the Pakistain Army".
The opposition PML-N, led by former prime minister
Nawaz Sharif... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Müslim League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
, has already rejected the Abbottabad commission, though he has done so on different grounds.
Mr Sharif has said that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani
... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ...
did not consult Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan while nominating members of the commission as required by the resolution.
The PML-N also is not satisfied with the Terms of Reference prepared by the government for the commission and believes that the commission under the existing ToR will be a powerless body and will not be able to call senior military officials or even record of intelligence agencies.
Assailing the PML-N chief for criticising army and intelligence agencies, Chaudhry Shujaat alleged that Mr Sharif was "trying to take advantage of the cropped up situation and differences between Pakistain Army and the US military leadership".
He said that by doing so Mr Sharif was trying to show to the Americans that "he can bring our army leadership under pressure to the liking of the US". The PML-Q is not the first party to renege on its support to the Abbottabad commission; earlier the opposition Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) declared it was against 'national interest'.
Briefing news hounds after a meeting of his party's central Majlis-i-Shoora on June 12, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman
Deobandi holy man, known as
Mullah Dieselduring the war against the Soviets, his sympathies for the Taliban have never been tempered by honesty ...
had said that forming the commission was wrong and against the national interest.
"If the commission finds the military in the wrong, it will be Pakistain that will suffer, not the military leadership," he said.