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Pakistan panel to probe lapses prior to US operations to kill Osama

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Islamabad, June 18, IRNA -- Pakistan will name a new commission to ascertain the facts about the presence of Osama bin Laden in the country and to probe the U.S. unilateral raid that killed the al-Qaeda chief.

Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani had formed a five-member commission to be headed by Justice Javed Iqbal, a Supreme Court judge, last month but the panel head said that the Chief Justice was not consulted before naming head of the body.

A former Supreme Court Judge, Fakhruddin G Ibrahim, who was made member of the Commission, also refused to become a member saying that he was not given any prior information.

Legal experts had also insisted that a judge can not be made head of an investigation panel unless permission is sought from the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

Chairperson of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Asma Jehangir, had raised objection at the Commission and said that the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court should have been informed prior to judge's nomination as head of the body.

Opposition leader Nawaz Sharif had also asked the government to form an independent and powerful commission to expose all mysteries surrounding the presence of Osama bin Laden and the agencies failure to detect the movement of the US military helicopters.

The panel was announced in late May but could not start work until now and Pakistan’s Law Minister, Mulla Bakhsh Chandio on Saturday that a new commission will soon be formed to start the much awaited investigation.

“Consultations are underway for the new panel,” the Minister told Dawn TV in an interview.

The U.S. unilateral action to kill Osama bin Laden on May 2 had sparked a widespread protest across the country as the country's radar system could not detect movement of the U.S. military helicopters, which conducted some 40-minute operation in the garrison city of Abbottabad.

Officials say that the commission's mandate includes establishing 'the full facts' regarding Osama's presence in Pakistan, as well as details about the U.S. incursion.

The commission shall determine the nature, background and causes of lapses of the concerned authorities, if any. The commission shall make consequential recommendations.

Islamic Republic News Agency/IRNA NewsCode: 30436889