ISLAMABAD: Information pertaining to the handing over of a CD, containing a full video recording of the in-camera joint sitting of parliament held to discuss the Abbottabad raid on May 13, to the US mission will be probed and in this regard action will be taken today (Friday). The CD is in the custody of the National Assembly Speaker’s Secretariat.
It was revealed in an informal conversation with National Assembly Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi, who chaired the proceedings of the joint sitting, on Thursday evening that “There is no question about a video recording of the sitting since the secretariat/administration is fully alert to stall any such activity,” he said.
He said the Speaker Secretariat made every possible arrangement that no information whatsoever about the proceeding leaked, but some of honourable members talked to media immediately after the session and divulged certain parts of the proceedings. To a question, he said had the CD of the proceedings been available to anybody outside the parliament, it would have been made public by now. “We have not heard about it from anybody,” he added.
[HI]Meanwhile, another source claimed the authorities were suspecting that the US mission in Islamabad had clandestinely obtained the video recording of the sitting that lasted about 11 hours. Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) General Khalid Shameem Wynne, Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Noman Bashir, Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Rao Qamar Sulaiman and ISI DG Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha also attended the joint sitting.[/HI]
General Pasha briefed parliamentarians about the incident in which Osama bin Laden (OBL) was reportedly found in a compound in Abbottabad by American SEALs on fateful day and killed there. They also took the body of OBL with them in their choppers.
[HI]The sources claimed some of US officials, while interacting with the authorities in Pakistan, recently gave the impression that they had minute-to-minute full knowledge of the proceedings of the joint sitting. They also had information that has not appeared in the press as yet, but the authenticity of the details could not be verified.[/HI]
The security agencies had put their system in place so that nobody could stealthily make recording of the sitting and now they are perturbed about the information. The agencies are also probing through their networking about the report. They have informed that no video recording was made at any stage except a few still photographs, the sources said.
The then acting speaker of the National Assembly, Faisal Karim Kundi, has clarified that a staff of four to five persons was engaged on the day for translation of the speeches and switching on/off the mikes, but nobody had the system of private video recording. The automatic video recording system of the National Assembly Hall was also switched off on the day, he maintained.
PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal urged the National Assembly speaker to clarify the position with regard to the information. Terming the act as high treason, he demanded the government carry out investigation into the matter immediately.
http://old.thenews.com.pk/17-06-2011/ethenews/t-6781.htm
