WASHINGTON, Aug 3: Members of the independent 9/11 commission have accused the Musharraf government of “doing too little” to catch Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders who they say are hiding along the Pakistan-Afghan border. Osama bin Laden, who has a $25 million bounty on his head, is considered the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the US. He has been the target of a worldwide manhunt by US forces since 9/11.

In an earlier hearing, members of the 9/11 commission had urged the US government to ensure a long-term engagement with Pakistan and provide adequate economic assistance to Islamabad to help fight poverty which, they said, bred terrorism. However, at a hearing convened on Tuesday to press for implementation of the panel’s year-old recommendations, the members expressed disappointment with Pakistan’s ‘lukewarm’ efforts to catch bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders.

Lee Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana who served as vice chairman of the bipartisan 10-member commission, said Pakistan “has not been all that helpful, really, in helping us hunt for Osama bin Laden.”

Former Ambassador Elizabeth Jones, who also served as deputy chief of the US Embassy in Islamabad from 1988 to 1992, said General Musharraf faced the “most difficulty” in forcing Pakistan’s military intelligence agency to end its covert support for anti-American factions across the border in Afghanistan.

“That has not worked as it should have,” Ms Jones told the hearing. “It’s something that’s going to take some time and needs a tremendous amount of work.”

Former Ambassador Dennis Ross, who served as Middle East peace envoy for former Presidents George H W Bush and Bill Clinton, said bin Laden continued to enjoy substantial support among many of Pakistan’s 150 million Muslims, a political reality that makes President Musharraf cautious in any effort to capture the terrorist mastermind.

“It isn’t to say that it would be easy to get (bin Laden) — assuming he’s there — but we see a kind of episodic effort to do so,” said Mr Ross.

In an interview to ABC News last week, President Musharraf had emphasized that catching bin Laden was not an easy task and that if he had been caught inside Pakistan, the government would have face “a negative reaction from extremists.”

“We hope he’s found in Afghanistan by the Americans,” Gen Musharraf had said. Asked whether Pakistan would transfer bin Laden to US custody upon his capture, he had said: “Obviously, we’ll see what happens.”

Speakers at Tuesday’s hearing in Washington acknowledged that Pakistan had carried out several military operations in the NWFP and the traditionally independent tribal areas but complained that no major al Qaeda leader was caught during these operations.

They also complained that President Musharraf had not publicly authorized US forces based in Afghanistan to carry out hot pursuit of suspected al Qaeda operatives who might have fled from Afghanistan into Pakistan.

The speakers noted that the Bush administration continues to trust Gen Musharraf and last Friday, after President Bush’s telephonic conversation with the Pakistani leader, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan had called him “a good partner in the global war on terrorism.”

Some US terrorism experts allege that serving and retired officials within the Pakistani establishment were helping bin Laden, enabling him to hide undetected since the fall of the Taliban regime almost four years ago.

The last time bin Laden was seen was in a November-2004 video. “In the television world people noted how excellent the lighting was and how professionally it was done,” said Jere Van Dyke, a CBS terrorism analyst. “How could any man sitting in a mud castle put together such an excellent video?”

“There are many people who believe he has institutional support. The problem will be of course to find out where that cell is, if in fact it exists, and tap it,” Mr Van Dyke said.

Some experts urged the US administration to launch a unilateral effort to capture or kill bin Laden, regardless of the consequences for Pakistan.