A tall tale

But Abbottabad report offers an opening for Sharif to rework the balance on foreign policy and defence

But Abbottabad report offers an opening for Sharif to rework the balance on foreign policy and defence

Pakistan has blocked Al Jazeeras website to keep its residents from a riveting read of Osama bin Ladens giddy life on the run. But summaries of whats claimed to be the report of a high-powered government inquiry into the circumstances surrounding that operation both his presence in Abbottabad in the shadow of Pakistans elite military academy and the humiliation inflicted by American Navy SEALs stealing into Pakistani airspace in the dead of night and making off with their catch are floating on any number of news sites. The essence of the Supreme Court judge-led commissions findings is incompetence and negligence by Pakistani forces in failing to detect bin Ladens presence on their soil for almost a decade after he crossed over from the Tora Bora caves in 2002,and then in being taken by surprise,that too after the event,by the US operation. Given the evidence,anecdotal and documented,of the Pakistan military and intelligence establishments cover to terrorists of al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban that they perceived to be strategic assets,this conclusion will be a tough sell.

However,given how tight the country shut its eyes to the implications of that May 2,2011,operation,even a report as full of obfuscation and nationalist hand-wringing as this one could be a starting point for Pakistan to begin to come to grips with the perverse effects of its deception on fighting terrorism. It just may,though the odds are obviously long,help the newly elected Nawaz Sharif government pull some weight in bringing foreign policy and defence issues under parliamentary purview. In its juiciest bits,the report reads like a comic caper. Bin Laden being pulled over for speeding in the course of his purportedly retiree existence in Pakistan. His use of cowboy hats to evade detection by overhead flights as he strolled in his Abbottabad compound. His consumption of chocolate and apples to keep energy levels up. These enable conclusions such as this commissions: Above all,the tragedy refers to the comprehensive failure of Pakistan to detect the presence of OBL on its territory for almost a decade or to discern the direction of US policy towards Pakistan that culminated in the avoidable humiliation of the people of Pakistan.

Does it? The fact is that the audacity and smoothness of the American operation allowed a suddenly exposed Pakistani establishment to bundle the question of its complicity in sheltering bin Laden and,by implication,its duplicity while partnering to fight terrorism with indignation at the intrusion into its airspace and territory. Till Pakistan does not unbundle the two issues,periodic reminders of the OBL episode will lose none of their discomforting sting.