Islamabad: Former Pakistan Supreme Court judge Justice Javed Iqbal who headed the Abbottabad commission set up to conduct a probe after Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was eliminated in a covert operation by American troopers has called for the report to be made public and its recommendations implemented.
“Unfortunately, a routine has been made to establish commissions after every incident and then put the findings of the report on the shelf, due to which, there is an impression that commissions are made to pass time so that the public would forget the incident. The report of the Abbottabad commission must (also) be lying on some shelf,” the Dawn quoted Mr Iqbal as saying at a senate meet chaired by PPP senator Rehman Malik.
Mr Iqbal said the report focused on identifying the people responsible for the incident. He said that personalities responsible for the incident had been identified in the report and actions had been suggested.
However, if necessary, some of its parts could be left classified, he added. “As I am under oath, I cannot reveal the names of those persons. Only the government can reveal the names,” he said.
After Bin Laden was reportedly killed by the American forces in a surgical strike on a house in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on May 2, 2011, questions surfaced as to whether he was deliberately kept in Abbottabad near a training centre of the armed forces.
The government then formed a panel to hold an inquiry into the incident. Other members of the panel were Abbas Khan, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi and retired Lt. Gen. Nadeem Ahmed.
Though the inquiry was completed three years ago, the report was never made public. One version of the report was leaked by an international media group in 2013.
In July 2013, Mr Qazi informed the senate committee on defence that the leaked report was the first draft and not the final version submitted to the Prime Minister. The final copy is said to be a watered-down version of the leaked draft that was highly critical of the armed forces, particularly the Inter-Services Intelligence, not only for its failures, but also for stymieing the growth of civilian intelligence organisations.
