A massive political storm has been stirred in Pakistan over former defence minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar's revelations that the top authorities in the country knew about the presence of Osama bin Laden. Former Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif are disturbed by the statements made by Chaudhry and the government has ordered an inquiry against him.
Pakistan National Security Advisor Sartaj Aziz has sought a clarification from the former Pakistani defence minister. Sources say that Chaudhry has left Pakistan.
In fact, in a shocking statement, former interior minister Rehman Malik claimed that Mukhtar was not a defence minister. He also claimed that Mukhtar did not understand the anchor's question and language acted as a barrier. "Nobody knew Osama lived in Pakistan," Malik said.
Earlier, former aide of ex Pakistani Army chief and dictator General Pervez Musharraf, Rashid Qureshi asserted that the claims made by Chaudhary Mukhtar are wrong and that the former defence minister is lying.
"I cannot believe Mukhtar has said this, if this is true then there''s something wrong with Mukhtar. The revelation comes as a shock to entire Pakistan but I do not and I have not heard Mukhtar saying that president of Pakistan knew where Osama bin Laden was before that operation was carried out to kill him," he said.
Chaudhary Ahmed Mukthar was the defence minister of Pakistan between 2008 and 2012. He was part of the top five ministers in the cabinet of the then prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani. A long time member of the Pakistan People's Party, Chaudhary Ahmed Mukhtar had the ear of his boss, President Asif Ali Zardari.
It is for the first time, four and a half years after the killing of Osama Bin Laden, that an insider has revealed a truth that Pakistan deliberately and carefully hid from the rest of the world.
Here's why this is important. Contrast the admission by the then Pakistan defence minister to all the official reactions of Pakistani authorities in the immediate aftermath of Osama's killing.
"I categorically deny any role, any assistance from any Pak official or establishment. The way he hid himself, we could not identify him," Rehman Malik, the then interior minister, had said on May 10, 2011.
Musharraf had maintained a similar stand. "As far as I am concerned, I am 500% sure that I did not know, whether anyone believes it or not. So I am clear there is no complicity. And I am also clear that army and ISI could not have hidden it from me. Because I am from them and they are from me," he had said on October 27, 2011.
Pakistan continues to hold the same position to this day, a denial, the art of which has been perfected by Pakistan's state institutions. Now the then Pakistan Defence Minister has blown the lid out of this denial as to why this narrative was not countered.
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