Abbottabad commission summons Wajid
ISLAMABAD, Dec 12: The commission investigating the US commando raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad has summoned Pakistan High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Wajid Shamsul Hassan to record his statement on whatever he knows about the May 2 episode.
According to the press release issued by the inquiry commission after its meeting on Monday, Mr Hassan has been asked to appear before it by the end of the month. Dawn
The high commissioner, who is not attending the two-day meeting of the Pakistani envoys being held in the Foreign Office to review the contours of US-Pakistan relations, told by telephone that he was yet to receive any directives by the commission.
“I want to bring on record that I have not received any such official communication from Islamabad,” Mr Hassan said.
Media reports suggested that Mr Hassan deliberately skipped the envoys' meeting in Islamabad to avoid facing the journalists.
When asked if he had avoided the meeting just to avoid possible searching questions about the US raid and the 'memogate', Mr Hassan simply said: “Not true.”
An earlier statement by the diplomat about the May 2 US raid is believed to be the main reason why the Abbottabad commission has asked him to appear before it. Some news organisations had quoted Mr Hassan as saying, “President Obama's appreciation for the support extended by Pakistan and our prime minister's felicitation to the Americans for hunting down Al Qaeda chief the same day had initially created an impression that the operation was an outcome of the shared knowledge and intelligence of the two sides.”
He reportedly said that “it was a known fact that US intelligence agencies exploited the leads using information provided by Pakistan's intelligence agencies as well as through interviews of Al Qaeda's operatives handed over to the US”.
However, he added that Pakistan was stabbed in the back by the US because as a coalition partner in the war on terror there was close liaison between the intelligence networks of the two countries, but the information about Osama's presence in Abbottabad and the operation to hunt him down were not shared with Pakistan.
Meanwhile, the commission headed by Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal held detailed discussions with some legal experts, including Wasim Sajjad, Justice (retd) Nasira Iqbal and S.M. Zafar.
The commission asked the country's former ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani, to appear before it on its next meeting to be held on Wednesday.