Islamabad:
Pakistan's main Opposition leader Nawaz Sharif has demanded that the government should form a judicial commission within three days to ascertain how Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was able to hide in the country.
Dismissing Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's announcement of a probe by the Army's Adjutant General as inadequate, Sharif said the proposed judicial commission should also probe whether there was any tacit agreement permitting operations by US forces in Pakistani territory.
The former premier said the commission should "determine the nature and causes of failures of the civil and military authorities" in all matters related to bin Laden's presence in the country and the US raid that killed him in the garrison city of Abbottabad on May 2.
The commission should "fix responsibility for and propose actions against persons responsible for the said failures compromising the dignity, self-respect and sovereignty of Pakistan", he said.
Sharif said he had written to Gilani seeking the formation of the judicial commission to be headed by Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.
He demanded that the panel should be told to complete its probe within 21 days and to submit a report to Parliament.
Such a probe by an independent and unbiased panel is necessary in "view of the extremely serious crisis facing Pakistan and intense sense of insecurity and despondency among people as a result of the US operation", he said.
Sharif said Pakistanis should stand up as honourable people and stop "begging" for foreign aid as this was destroying the country.
"This is my strong belief that if this country had been on a democratic track there would not have been any gun running here, nor would there be terrorism, extremism and poverty," he said.
Sharif's demand came against the backdrop of mounting criticism of Gilani's government at home and abroad for failing to detect the presence of the Al Qaeda chief even though he was hiding in a compound located a stone's throw distance from the elite Pakistan Military Academy in Abbottabad, which is home to thousands of soldiers.
The Pakistan People's Party-led government and the powerful military have also been criticised by the public for failing to prevent the perceived violation of Pakistan's sovereignty by the US raid.
The operation fuelled anti-American sentiments that are already at a peak due to the US drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal belt.