ANP’s Bushra Gohar demands ISI chief’s resignation

Amid exchange of allegations between the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) over President Asif Ali Zardari’s health and the memo scandal in the National Assembly on Thursday, Awami National Party (ANP) legislator Bushra Gohar took the lead and demanded the resignation of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director General Ahmed Shuja Pasha for having been accused by Mansoor Ijaz for seeking Arab rulers’ support to remove Zardari.
Gohar’s demand was supported by Opposition Leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan which was a complete U-turn from his earlier stance in which he had defended Pasha, saying that Ijaz’s allegations against the ISI chief were part of a conspiracy to malign the national spy agency.
“When a foreigner (Mansoor Ijaz) levelled allegations against Hussain Haqqani, he (the ambassador) was asked to resign to make investigations transparent … now Ijaz has accused the ISI DG of seeking support of Arab countries for Zardari’s ouster but he (Pasha) is investigating the ‘memo’ issue … General Pasha should also resign to make the memo investigations impartial,” she said while criticising Nisar’s speech in which he had defended the ISI DG in the memo case and had termed Ijaz’s allegation against Pasha a lie. However, ANP Information Secretary Senator Zahid Khan distanced himself from Gohar’s demand, saying it was her personal opinion and not the party’s policy.
Earlier, speaking on a point of order, Chaudhry Nisar criticised the government for its delay in rebutting news report in which Ijaz claimed that the ISI DG had sought support of Arab countries after the Abbotabad incident to remove Zardari. “I know he (Pasha) is not a fool that he would seek approval from Arab countries for Zardari’s ouster … this is a conspiracy to malign the ISI in the world … the report is a lie and should be rebutted by the government but I do not know why the government is keeping mum over the issue,” he said.
Later on when Gohar challenged the PML-N’s double standard on the memo case, Nisar backtracked from his stance, saying that he endorsed Gohar’s demand. “Bushra Gohar represents the treasury benches, therefore the ANP should ask the PPP government to get resignation from the ISI DG … I was the man who repeatedly talked about General Pasha’s resignation in front of him during the joint sitting of the parliament,” Nisar said.
Severely criticising the government over the Shamsi Airbase issue, Nisar said giving the base to foreigners without any written agreement was tantamount to treason. “Who authorised former president Pervez Musharraf to hand over Shamsi Airbase to the United States for launching aerial attacks inside Pakistan … the governments (previous and incumbent) have been denying the presence of NATO forces on the base for the last ten years which turned out to be a complete lie,” he said.
On Zardari’s health, the opposition leader said that contradictory statements by top government officials had created confusion about the president’s health, indicating that the ruling party had no competence to run the affairs of the country.
Expressing disappointment over the prime minister’s speech in the Senate on Wednesday, Nisar asked him to expose the conspiracy which was haunting him. “Had the PML-N intended to hatch a conspiracy against the government, it would have succeeded three years ago in toppling the government,” he said without elaborating the nature and timing of the conspiracy which could be hatched three years ago against the government. Nisar further assailed the government for a reported expenditure of Rs 260 million on the renovation of the presidency’s kitchen.
Responding to Nisar’s tirade, PPP leader Qamar Zaman Kaira said his party was not concealing anything from the nation. “Our government did not handed over Shamsi or any other airbase to NATO … we are releasing a daily health bulletin on the president’s health to the media,” he said. Kaira said that Ijaz’s charges against the ISI DG were as baseless as his allegations against Hussain Haqqani and others. On the reported renovation of the presidency’s kitchen, Kaira said the president himself had rejected the proposal and the government would soon issue a rebuttal against such news.