Pakistan's parliament unanimously approved a resolution Saturday condemning the U.S. bin Laden mission as a "violation of Pakistan's sovereignty," calling to review the country's "terms of engagement with the United States." It warned Pakistan could cut supply lines to American forces in Afghanistan if there were more such attacks.
The parliament also said all U.S. drone attacks "must be stopped forthwith."
The parliamentary action came at the close of an extraordinary marathon session intended to grill the army and intelligence chiefs. Their failure to discover Osama bin Laden's hideout in the same city as the country's premier military academy and failure to detect U.S. commandos coming in and out of the country to capture and kill the al-Qaida chief have been a source of huge national embarrassment.
What analysts saw as a rare opportunity for the weak civilian government to dress down the powerful army and intelligence agency, known as the ISI, ended up actually endorsing the military and intelligence community. The resolution expressed "deep distress" at "the campaign to malign Pakistan," without appreciating "Pakistan's immense sacrifices in combating terror."
Lawmakers, however, also called for an independent commission to investigate the bin Laden debacle rather than having the army conduct one itself.
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