The mysterious silence of the Foreign Office and Inter-Service Public Relations (ISPR) has further deepened the controversy over issuance of visas to United States citizens.
Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani’s disclosure that visas had been issued on the military’s recommendations and his resolve that the current policy on issuance of visas would not be changed has raised many eyebrows in Islamabad.
Pakistan Today made several attempts to contact ISPR Director General Maj General Ather Abbas and Foreign Office Spokeswoman Tehmina Janjua for comments on the position taken by Haqqani, but both were unavailable.
Haqqani was more than pleased only a couple of months ago when he, with the help of the presidency, supposedly foiled the alleged plan of the security establishment to remove him from his post, but now with the appearance of his reported letter in response to a Joint Staff Headquarters (JSHQ) communication showing displeasure over issuance of visas to Americans in an “irresponsible manner” seems to have created problems for him again. “After the appearance of his letter in the media, Haqqani is more than perturbed and he is once again reaching out to the presidency and prime minister’s office, bringing into their notice that a plan to remove him is being executed by security establishment,” said a Pakistani diplomat on Monday, requesting anonymity. He said going back to the earlier mechanism of issuing visas after vetting of the applications of Americans by defense organisations was what the security establishment had been asking the govt for. He said that in January and February this year, the security and defence organisations were very upset with the way Haqqani had tackled the issue of visas.
The defense circles believed that the reckless manner in which Pakistan’s embassy in Washington had issued visas to Americans brought to Pakistan dubious people such as Raymond Davis. However, Haqqani intelligently neutralised the move against himself by impressing upon the presidency the need to renew his contract (which was duly granted), saying that given the strained ties with Washington at such a critical juncture, his presence as Pakistan’s envoy in Washington should be guaranteed because he was close to policy-makers there.
“The letter, its contents and the way the ambassador responded to the military’s concern show that defence circles and Pakistan’s ambassador are again face to face with each other and clearly Haqqani is facing a difficult time in his tenure,” the diplomat said. When asked whether Haqqani could be removed as ambassador, the diplomat avoided a direct reply to the question and only said: “He is in deep trouble, for sure.” To another question about whether Haqqani was against the old mechanism of visa issuance after security agencies’ clearance, he said he was not aware of all the details but knew for sure that it had been an issue between him and defence circles here. A security official, however, told Pakistan Today the military would not like to indulge in such “controversies” at a time when the country was passing through a difficult situation.