In the still hours of May 2, 2011, while U.S. Navy SEALs stealthily descended on Abbottabad to eliminate Osama bin Laden, a different kind of operation was unfolding in Islamabad — one of political intrigue and clandestine diplomacy.
At the Presidency, a power-sharing accord between the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) was being meticulously inked. According to The Zardari Presidency (2008–13) by Farhatullah Babar, the deal was sealed around 1:30 a.m., coinciding almost exactly with the moment U.S. forces were breaching Bin Laden’s compound, killing the world’s most wanted man, and spiriting his body away — all within a Pakistani military cantonment.
As the night deepened, Squadron Leader Jalal, ADC to President Zardari, caught wind of a mysterious helicopter crash in the hilly enclave of Abbottabad — a detail too unusual to ignore. Though he suspected something grave had occurred, he hesitated to alert the President until confirming the facts.
Meanwhile, the switchboard at Army House crackled to life with an urgent call: the army chief was en route to the Presidency. Within minutes, President Obama had also placed a direct call to Zardari. It remains uncertain whether Zardari had already met the army chief by that time. One thing is clear — the President did not sleep that night, his attention caught between a fragile political alliance and a global security shockwave.
In the aftermath, as the Memo-gate scandal erupted and Ambassador Hussain Haqqani resigned, Babar — then serving as the President’s spokesperson — made a chilling discovery. “I found my Gmail account hacked,” he writes. Fake messages had already been dispatched, falsely attributing to him admissions of complicity in the controversial memo sent to Admiral Mike Mullen. Though the FIA investigated, the hacker’s identity remains unknown.
The book also revisits the high-stakes Raymond Davis saga, with Zardari telling U.S. Senator John Kerry that no immunity would hold in court. “I don’t want the mullahs to take it to the streets,” Zardari warned. The eventual solution — compensation under Islamic law — was crafted behind closed doors.
According to the News report on 28.05.2025 by Umar Cheema, this night of intersecting drama symbolized a Pakistan caught between sovereignty, survival, and secrecy.
