Islamabad: As US Navy SEALs helicopters swept into Pakistan’s Abbottabad garrison town early on May 2, 2011, to neutralise their biggest adversary, Osama Bin Laden, President Asif Ali Zardari was awake that night – stitching up a power deal to bolster up the PPP government, his former advisor has disclosed.
With the Pakistan Peoples Party on precarious ground after the end of the coalition agreement with Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz arrived after the 2008 election, an understanding was reached with the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam (PML-Q), the party which backed former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, so as to obtain a comfortable majority in the National Assembly, Zardari’s then spokesperson Farhatullah Babar wrote in his recently-published memoir.
“The agreement was finalised around 1.30 a.m. on May 2, precisely when US Navy SEALs were infiltrating the country, raiding the compound, killing Osama bin Laden, and escaping with his body — announcing to the world that the most wanted terrorist had been hiding in a military cantonment in Pakistan,” Babar wrote in the “The Zardari Presidency”, the News reported.
Babar said that the President’s Aide-de-Camp, Squadron Leader Jalal, was likely to know what had happened as a service colleague told him that a helicopter had crashed in Abbottabad, and he figured that a helicopter flight in the hilly area at night was suspicious.
“He was the first among the President’s staff to learn about what had happened,” Babar noted, adding that the PAF officer did not hasten to inform the President as he wanted to double-check the information.
Babar also said that more inklings that something big had happened came after the Aiwan-e-Sadr received a call from the Army House to intimate that the army chief, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, was on his way to meet the President.
Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama had also called Zardari to inform him. However, it remains unclear whether Zardari’s meeting with Gen Kayani had occurred by that time.
The President stayed awake throughout the night, first due to the finalisation of the power-sharing agreement with the PML-Q and then because of the Abbottabad incident, Babar wrote.
On the Raymond Davis episode of January 2011, Babar says that the Americans were desperate to secure the release of the private CIA contractor, who was arrested after shooting dead two people in Lahore, while a third was mown down in his escape bid, and fly him out of the country as soon as possible.
The reason behind this urgency remained shrouded in mystery, he said.
However, Zardari told Senator John Kerry, who was in Pakistan for this purpose, that since Davis wasn’t a diplomat, he couldn’t be granted immunity, and even if this was done, it would be struck down by the court.
Showing Kerry pictures of religious parties demanding criminal prosecution of Raymond, Zardari leaned forward and said: “I don’t want the mullahs to take it to the streets”, as per the book.
The President then said there had to be an out-of-the-box solution, and as Kerry inquired about it, he replied: “We have to think about paying good compensation to the families of the victims under Islamic law.” At this, US Ambassador Cameron Munter’s face lit up, Babar recalled.
As Zardari went on say: “But it is not automatic. The process involved will take some time”, Munter slumped again, Babar added. “He was in a hurry to secure Davis’s release. Eventually, the release occurred through this formula,” he wrote.
The US eventually paid $2.4 million in blood money to secure the acquittal and release of Davis, who was promptly flown out of the country.
(IANS)
