Stillborn commission

The Prime Minister-constituted five-member commission to investigate the US raid on Abbottabad resulting in Osama bin Laden's killing is stillbirth - a birth in which the baby is born dead. Not only has prime minister's announcement that he made on Tuesday invited opposition's ire, it has unnecessarily incensed the apex judiciary because of a variety of reasons.
Consider. First, the measure lacks constitutional and legal propriety because no judge can be taken on the board of inquiry or made part of a commission without the explicit permission or consent of the chief justice. In this case, however, a senior judge of Supreme Court of Pakistan, Justice Javed Iqbal, has been tasked to head the inquiry commission in the absence of any consultations with Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Chaudhry.
Second, one of the key members of the commission, former Justice Fakhruddin G Ebrahim, has refused to be part of the commission on grounds that although his name was on the list of persons recommended for the commission by the Leader of the Opposition, he was not asked whether or not he was available for the job. Third, another member of the proposed commission, Lieutenant General Nadeem Ahmed (retired), who has been admitted to a hospital, has strongly indicated that he was also not available for the commission.
There is no denying the fact that an independent commission to investigate the facts about the US commando raid on the Osama compound in Abbottabad has been instituted by the government, perhaps more to neutralize the opposition's pressure than to fix responsibility for the institutional failure. The commission was demanded by the parliament in a resolution unanimously passed by a joint session of the two Houses in mid-May, but the government has taken its time during which a lot of water has flown under the bridge.
The challenge before the two sides in the parliament is the 'terms of reference', which need to be fixed with great care and forethought - for, what the commission may come up as its findings is bound to have critical implications both for the country's domestic and foreign policies. Surely, nobody would like the commission's report to become readily available handle in the hands of Pakistan's enemies, or international organizations, to malign its intelligence services. The government is required to examine its own follies with a view to taking some urgent remedial measures so that a commission whose composition does not cause any considerable controversy is preceded by consultations among the government, Opposition and the judiciary.