Pakistan government says too early to comment on leaked report

Islamabad: Pakistan government on Tuesday said that it was too early to say whether someone would be punished for failing to detect Osama bin Laden’s decade-long stay in the country, a day after a leaked report blamed authorities for negligence in tracing the slain al-Qaeda chief.

Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid said that government was not in a hurry to take action against those responsible for negligence in tracing bin Laden.

“It is too early to ask this question,” Mr Rashid told reporters when asked about any punitive measures being contemplated by the authorities against those who failed to locate al-Qaeda chief’s whereabouts in the country.

His comment came after a leaked government investigation into the killing of bin Laden blamed unnamed authorities for negligence and incompetence in failing to detect or capture him.

In the first official response after scathing report, the minister also said that government would take action against those making public the classified document.

“Only the government was authorised to declassify the document,” Mr Rashid said, “We will see who did it by violating the laws.”