Gilani says Pakistan not 'complicit' in sheltering Osama
11 May, 2012
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Thursday insisted that Pakistan had not been "complicit" in sheltering Osama bin Laden and said the fact the late al Qaeda leader was able to live undetected for so long in Pakistan was down to a universal "intelligence failure".
In an interview with the Guardian, Gilani rejected claims Pakistan had secretly known Osama was living in Abbottabad.
"There is no complicity. I think it is an intelligence failure from all over the world," Gilani said, who is in London on a five-day official visit to the UK.
He denied that elements within Pakistan Army might have been aware of bin Laden's hideout. He also said, "Why should we do that? We have suffered the most."
Gilani said that he didn't know whether al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri was in Pakistan. "If there is any credible information please share it with us, so we can be quick and achieve our targets," he said.
Asked if Taliban leader Mullah Omar might be in the country, the premier replied, "I don't know. Please tell us. The CIA is far more powerful than Pakistan's ISI intelligence service, and would have a better idea."
Gilani said Pakistan was "part of the solution, not part of the problem" when it came to the global issue of fighting terrorism.
Relations with the UK were "excellent", he observed. "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," he added.
In addition, Pakistan was now "catering for the needs" of 3.6 million Afghan refugees, he said.
Gilani was upbeat about relations with Washington, which have been under severe strain since NATO forces killed 24 Pakistani soldiers last November.
He admitted recent relations with the Obama administration had not been normal, but said the CIA and ISI were still working together to achieve, as he put it, high-level targets.
But he pointed out it was practically impossible to police the mountainous Pak-Afghan border, where thousands crossed everyday. "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. He said Pakistan supported political reconciliation in Afghanistan as long as it was "Afghan-owned and Afghan-led". Of Pakistan's role, he said, "We are a facilitator."
Speaking warmly of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the prime minister said Islamabad was serious about resolving all core issues with New Delhi.
Gilani declined to say exactly what his intelligence services had gleaned from bin Laden's wives and children, who left Pakistan for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia last month after a year in Pakistani custody.
Meanwhile in an interview with the CNN, Gilani said Pakistan wants "new terms of engagement" with the US.
With his fate hanging in the balance at home, the PM repudiated US claims that Pakistan was falling short on fighting the war on terror and said instead that his nation was operating on a trust deficit with Washington.
"There's a trust deficit between both the countries, between both the governments," Gilani said.
"That is the reason we are wanting to work for new terms of engagement and cooperation with the United States." Asked why Hafiz Muhammad Saeed remained a free man, the premier said Pakistan was still "waiting for some concrete sort of information and evidence" that could be used against him in a court of law.
End.
|
