Pakistan’s prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani defended his country against allegations of complicity in hiding the world’s most wanted terrorist Osama Bin Laden.
In his first speech to parliament follow a U.S. Navy Seal raid last week, Gilani said on Monday that he had “full confidence” in both the military and the country’s spy agency ISI.
However he said that an investigation had been launched into why Bin Laden was able to reside for years unnoticed in a large compound in the garrison city of Abbottabad, a few hours drive from the capital Islamabad.
President Barack Obama said that a “support network” inside Pakistan must have shielded Bin Laden, but added that officials “don’t know whether there might have been some people inside of government (or) people outside of government, and that’s something that we have to investigate.” Suggestions of government involved were strongly rejected by Gilani.
“Allegations of complicity or incompetence are absurd,” he said in the televised speech. “We emphatically reject such accusations. Speculative narratives in the public domain are meant to create despondency. We will not allow our detractors to succeed in offloading their own shortcomings and errors of omission and commission in a blame game that stigmatizes Pakistan.”
The ease with which U.S. military entered into Pakistani territory to dispatch bin Laden has been cited by opposition parties as a sign of government incompetence. Pakistani media has raised the question of whether the U.S. would be able to carry out such a raid again, this time on key assets such as the country’s nuclear arsenal.
Despite having first issued a statement praising the attack, Gilani appeared to bow to public pressure on Monday issuing a warning against Washington.
“Any attack against Pakistan’s strategic assets whether overt or covert will find a matching response,” he said. “Pakistan reserves the right to retaliate with full force. No one should underestimate the resolve and capability of our nation and armed forces to defend our sacred homeland.
“Unilateralism runs the inherent risk of serious consequences,” he added, although later stressing that the U.S. remains a key ally in the country’s own war on terrorism.
Pakistan’s ambassador to the U.S., Husain Haqqani, told ABC’s ‘This Week’ on Sunday that the military-run investigation into why bin Laden remained undetected would be far-reaching.
“Heads will roll once the investigation has been completed,” he said. “Now, if those heads are rolled on account of incompetence, we will share that information with you. And if, God forbid, somebody’s complicity is discovered, there will be zero tolerance for that, as well,” said Haqqani.
