Vehemently rejecting claims his government somehow helped Osama bin Laden live undetected for so long, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has promised the army will investigate.
But even as he called bin Laden's death "justice done," he warned any further foreign military incursions will be met with "full force."
Gilani was blunt in his televised address to the Pakistani Parliament Monday, one week after bin Laden was killed in his northern Pakistan hideout by covert U.S. special forces.
"Allegations of complicity or incompetence are absurd," he said.
In the days since bin Laden was killed on May 2, the world has learned that the heavily fortified Abbottabad compound where the al-Qaeda leader lived in hiding for years is a stone's throw from a military base in a garrison town less than three hours drive from the Pakistani capital Islamabad.
In an interview broadcast on the popular news magazine program "60 Minutes" on Sunday night, U.S. President Barack Obama underscored the whispers that have been circulating since the covert operation -- that the feared terrorist leader must have had "some sort of support network" in Pakistan.
"We don't know whether there might have been some people inside of (Pakistan's) government, people outside of government, and that's something that we have to investigate and, more importantly, the Pakistani government has to investigate," Obama said in the interview recorded Wednesday.
Despite the clear implication, Obama stopped short of openly accusing Pakistani officials of giving the man accused of plotting the deadly attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 a safe haven.
But in his speech, Gilani made his country's official position clear as he outright rejected any claims Pakistani authorities had colluded with bin Laden.
"We emphatically reject such accusations," he said, calling the notorious terrorist leader's death "justice done."
And in a nod to domestic critics who have called for he and President Asif Ali Zardari's resignation for having allowed a foreign military to conduct such operations within Pakistan's borders, and without its permission, Gilani warned against any further unilateral action.
Future breaches of Pakistani sovereignty would merit "serious consequences," he said, warning they would be met with "full force."
"No one should underestimate the resolve and capability of our nation and armed forces to defend our sacred homeland," Gilani said.
But even as he struck a defiant tone, he also noted that Pakistan's diplomatic relationship with the United States remains strong and vowed to answer the world's questions about how bin Laden could have lived there as long as six years undetected.
Analysts say that Pakistani-U.S. relations are going through one of their roughest patches.
"I think (the U.S.-Pakistan relationship) is quite critical at the moment," Ayesha Haroon of the Asia Society told CTV News Channel. "But the White House is very careful that they say they have no information that there was any support for bin Laden from the government or the Pakistani army or intelligence services."
Kamran Bokhari, director of Middle East analysis for Stratfor Global Intelligence, said that as bad as the relationship is, Pakistan is too important as a strategic partner for the U.S. to let things get any worse.
"It's pretty strained and it's not going to get better any time soon . . . but the U.S. needs Pakistan," he said.
The U.S. has given Pakistan billions in aid for the war on terror, and Bokhari says the U.S. will use it as a leverage tool, but it's not likely they will rescind the money.
"It's a useful card to try to influence Pakistani behaviour," he said.
‘Intelligence failure'
Pakistan has been between a rock and a hard place, trying to explain how bin Laden could remain hidden out in the open for so long.
They could either plead willful ignorance by the army or intelligence officials or incompetence on their part. The Pakistanis seem to be hedging their bets on incompetence.
"We are determined to get to the bottom of how, when and why about Osama bin Laden's presence in Abbottabad. An investigation has been ordered," Gilani said.
"Let me also affirm the government's full confidence in the high command of the Pakistan Armed Forces and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)," he said.
"It is disingenuous for anyone to blame Pakistan or state institutions of Pakistan, including the ISI and the armed forces, for being in cahoots with al Qaeda."
And in a direct challenge to suggestions members of his country's spy agency must have had some knowledge of bin Laden's presence, Gilani instead suggested the world must share blame for the failure to pinpoint bin Laden's whereabouts sooner.
"Yes, there has been an intelligence failure," he said. "It is not only ours but of all the intelligence agencies of the world."
With files from The Associated Press
