Pasha heads to ‘friendly state’ amid claims he’s stepping down

As tensions with the US mounts over the Abbottabad raid by the US Navy SEALs to kill Osama bin Laden without informing Pakistan, Lt General Ahmad Shuja Pasha left for an important trip to a “friendly state” to take its government into confidence over Islamabad’s position on differences with Washington.
“General Pasha left for a visit to a friendly state to take them into confidence over the row with the US and explain to them Islamabad’s position over the US special operation that breached Pakistan’s sovereignty,” an official told Pakistan Today. The official declined to divulge the name of General Pasha’s destination but said the country had always been very close to Pakistan and helped it through thick and thin.
Another source, however, said it was either China or Saudi Arabia. The source said a senior Pakistani security official also had an important meeting with the CIA station chief in Islamabad and conveyed to him Pakistan’s displeasure and annoyance over the US covert operation to take out bin Laden while keeping its ally in dark. He said the Pakistani official conveyed to the CIA station chief that Pakistan would not tolerate repetition of any unilateral action on the pattern of that carried out in Abbottabad in future. As General Pasha left Islamabad, there were also speculations about his possible resignation owing to the Abbottabad operation. A US news website, Daily Beast claimed quoting unnamed Pakistani officials as saying that the head of the ISI might step down, as the government looked for a fall guy for the bin Laden debacle.
“To allay both domestic and international anger and dismay over the presence of Osama bin Laden in a military cantonment town close to the capital, senior Pakistani officials have told The Daily Beast they recognise that an important head has to roll and soon. They say the most likely candidate to be the fall guy is Lt Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha, the director general of the country’s spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate,” the US website claimed. The Daily Beast claimed that even some family members are said to be urging Pasha to step down but he feels his resignation would widely be seen as an admission of responsibility, if not guilt. The report claimed that according to a US official, Washington is now reassessing its view of Pakistan Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani.
It said that Admiral Mike Mullen was his main American interlocutor and became something of his pal during the long hours they spent together. Mullen is said to believe that Kayani could eventually be brought around to the American viewpoint that the Pakistani military has to move forcefully and rapidly against Taliban and al Qaeda havens in North Waziristan and around Quetta. But this same source told The Daily Beast that the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen David Petraeus, sees Kayani in a less favorable light. The report said that many senior US officials see Kayani as being too wedded to the traditional Pakistani line as laid down by the late dictator Ziaul Haq:
American viewpoint that the Pakistani military has to move forcefully and rapidly against Taliban and al Qaeda havens in North Waziristan and around Quetta. But this same source told The Daily Beast that the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen David Petraeus, sees Kayani in a less favorable light. The report said that many senior US officials see Kayani as being too wedded to the traditional Pakistani line as laid down by the late dictator Ziaul Haq: that India is a clear existential threat to Pakistan and that Islamabad must do all it can to ensure its influence in Afghanistan and to limit New Delhi’s growing presence there.
However, the Pakistani official rejected the report as baseless, saying no decision regarding the stepping down of the ISI chief had been made. Meanwhile, Pakistan has started work on reducing the number of US military and intelligence officials working in the country following bin Laden’s killing, Online reported. Quoting defence sources, Online reported that a list of names more than 50 such officials had been handed over to the US. They said senior military officials met the CIA station chief and informed him about the decision.