ISLAMABAD AND LAHORE – Arrest of another US government security contractor amid an already worsening row between Pakistan and the US over the fate of Raymond Davis has exposed the “lenient approach” adopted by the PPP-led government in issuance of visas to hundreds of Americans without proper vetting.
The country’s intelligence agencies have called on the Americans to “come clean” about its network of covert operatives in the country. According to the Guardian, Peshawar police arrested Aaron DeHaven, a contractor who recently worked for the US embassy in Islamabad, saying that his visa had expired.
Little was known about DeHaven except that his firm, which also has offices in Afghanistan and Dubai, is staffed by retired US military and defence personnel who boast of direct experience in the “global war on terror”. The media furore over Davis has fuelled scrutiny of other American security officials in Pakistan and their visa arrangements, and may have led police to DeHaven in Peshawar on Friday.
Davis and DeHaven are clear examples of how the government has issued visas to hundreds of other “dubious characters” like him succumbing to the US pressure that also forced the higher authorities in Islamabad to issue a special decree last year for doing away with the necessary vetting of visas for Americans by the ISI and the Ministry of Interior.
“Pakistani security agencies have deep concerns over the visa policy for the US citizens that the government has opted in past year after, which hundreds of visas were issued to Americans that also provided an opportunity to the CIA to send its agents like Davis on various assignments to Pakistan,” a security official said on Friday.
The soft visa policy was opted on the part of top government functionaries last year in July when the US strongly protested against the huge backlog of visas to US citizens by Islamabad owing to Pakistani security agencies’ thorough process of clearance.
“After the orders from the prime minister’s office in July last year, the visas that took days and weeks to be issued earlier were being issued without any vetting and in some cases visas were being given within 24 hours to many US citizens who had applied for it,” the official said. Another senior official said the episode of Davis had once again brought to surface the concerns of security agencies over visa issuance to Americans. “If the advice of the security agencies was followed, it would not have been possible for people like Davis to make their entry possible into Pakistan,” he said.
He said the issuance of visas to the Americans was a top priority for the country’s secret and security agencies and they wanted the government to bring the necessary improvement in its relevant procedure by reverting it to the old pattern that was vetting of visas being issued to the US citizens by the ISI and the Interior Ministry.
In addition to that, he said the intelligence agencies were trying to track down others like Davis in various parts of the country and once they felt that they had accomplished their mission, the issue of those people would also be taken up with the US administration.
