Islamabad:
In Pakistan a fierce internal debate has erupted, both over how Osama Bin Laden was able to hide in Abbottabad right under the nose of the security establishment, as well as over the American operation that killed Osama without the knowledge of the Pakistani military or intelligence.
As people ask hard, tough questions, there is a growing chorus of Opposition leaders as well as ordinary people who are demanding that heads must roll.
Today, Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had to issue a formal denial to say that its chief Shuja Pasha was not resigning. (Read: ISI denies Pasha's resignation, US visit reports)
Several media reports, meanwhile, continue to say that Pasha was on a secret visit to Washington on a critical trip despite official denials by the agency.
Amidst growing anger the country's former Foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, has demanded that the Prime Minister and the President should resign, saying the facts of the Osama operation had been kept from the people.
Addressing a news conference in the afternoon, Qureshi also said that action should also be taken against the heads of the Army and the ISI if they were held responsible by any official inquiry into the incident.
"I demand that the President and the Prime Minister must resign. If they cannot defend the people of Pakistan, they have no right to stay in power," a visibly angry Qureshi said.
"This was such a major incident and this impression being given of business as usual (cannot continue). Today the people are saying that the time has come that somebody should take responsibility for this incident. I am going to demand in the meeting of the (Pakistan People's Party's) central executive committee that the President and the Prime Minister must resign," he said.
Asked about the role of the chiefs of the Army and the ISI, he said: "If the inquiry committee holds people responsible in those ranks, then heads must roll."
Qureshi was not reallocated the foreign affairs portfolio in a Cabinet reshuffle in February after he toed the military's line on the issue of CIA contractor Raymond Davis, who was arrested for shooting two Pakistani men in Lahore.
Qureshi's contention that Davis was not entitled to blanket immunity angered the top leadership of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP).
Since then, Qureshi has been largely sidelined in the PPP and not invited to some crucial meetings of the top leadership.
Qureshi said Pakistanis were looking for leadership that could "feel and die" for the country.
He contended that the US had crossed a "red line" by carrying out a military operation to kill bin Laden without Pakistan's permission.
Pakistan is a partner of the US in the war on terror but "is this an answer to our commitment and sacrifices, he asked?"
Zardari had time to write an article for a US newspaper on the issue of bin Laden but neither he nor the prime minister bothered to take the nation into confidence, he said.
"The Prime Minister should immediately call a meeting of the Defence Committee of Cabinet and discuss this matter which matters to the whole nation," he said. Every Pakistani was angry and embarrassed over the bin Laden episode, he said.
Besides Qureshi, former premier Nawaz Sharif's PML-N party and cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan's Tehrik-e-Insaf party have demanded that some heads must roll in the wake of the "unauthorised" US raid in Pakistani territory.
The relationship between America and Pakistan is going from simmer to boil. The Obama administration is posing tough questions to the Pakistani government about presence of Osama bin Laden in their country. However, amid this sabre-rattling, it remains to be seen how both governments walk the delicate path in order to achieve a fine balance.
(With PTI inputs)
As people ask hard, tough questions, there is a growing chorus of Opposition leaders as well as ordinary people who are demanding that heads must roll.
Today, Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had to issue a formal denial to say that its chief Shuja Pasha was not resigning. (Read: ISI denies Pasha's resignation, US visit reports)
Several media reports, meanwhile, continue to say that Pasha was on a secret visit to Washington on a critical trip despite official denials by the agency.
Amidst growing anger the country's former Foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, has demanded that the Prime Minister and the President should resign, saying the facts of the Osama operation had been kept from the people.
Addressing a news conference in the afternoon, Qureshi also said that action should also be taken against the heads of the Army and the ISI if they were held responsible by any official inquiry into the incident.
"I demand that the President and the Prime Minister must resign. If they cannot defend the people of Pakistan, they have no right to stay in power," a visibly angry Qureshi said.
"This was such a major incident and this impression being given of business as usual (cannot continue). Today the people are saying that the time has come that somebody should take responsibility for this incident. I am going to demand in the meeting of the (Pakistan People's Party's) central executive committee that the President and the Prime Minister must resign," he said.
Asked about the role of the chiefs of the Army and the ISI, he said: "If the inquiry committee holds people responsible in those ranks, then heads must roll."
Qureshi was not reallocated the foreign affairs portfolio in a Cabinet reshuffle in February after he toed the military's line on the issue of CIA contractor Raymond Davis, who was arrested for shooting two Pakistani men in Lahore.
Qureshi's contention that Davis was not entitled to blanket immunity angered the top leadership of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP).
Since then, Qureshi has been largely sidelined in the PPP and not invited to some crucial meetings of the top leadership.
Qureshi said Pakistanis were looking for leadership that could "feel and die" for the country.
He contended that the US had crossed a "red line" by carrying out a military operation to kill bin Laden without Pakistan's permission.
Pakistan is a partner of the US in the war on terror but "is this an answer to our commitment and sacrifices, he asked?"
Zardari had time to write an article for a US newspaper on the issue of bin Laden but neither he nor the prime minister bothered to take the nation into confidence, he said.
"The Prime Minister should immediately call a meeting of the Defence Committee of Cabinet and discuss this matter which matters to the whole nation," he said. Every Pakistani was angry and embarrassed over the bin Laden episode, he said.
Besides Qureshi, former premier Nawaz Sharif's PML-N party and cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan's Tehrik-e-Insaf party have demanded that some heads must roll in the wake of the "unauthorised" US raid in Pakistani territory.
The relationship between America and Pakistan is going from simmer to boil. The Obama administration is posing tough questions to the Pakistani government about presence of Osama bin Laden in their country. However, amid this sabre-rattling, it remains to be seen how both governments walk the delicate path in order to achieve a fine balance.
(With PTI inputs)
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