The army on Wednesday rejected as “false assertions” in a report that appeared in a UK newspaper that ISI chief Lt General Ahmed Shuja Pasha visited Arab countries and sought their support for removal of President Asif Ali Zardari after the covert US raid in Abbottabad on May 2. The UK-based paper ‘The Independent’ reported earlier this month that General Pasha had travelled to Arab countries to discuss a move to oust President Asif Ali Zardari with the leaders of the gulf states. The army has also served a legal notice to the newspaper demanding to withdraw the news and apologise. The newspaper’s website had quoted Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz as saying, “Their (US intelligence) information was that Pasha had travelled to a few Arab countries to talk about what the necessary line of action would be in the event that they had to remove Zardari from power, and so forth.”
Nonetheless, the ISPR rejected the report and said that the paper had made false assertions regarding the ISI chief’s visits to Arab countries. “It has been said that the ISI director general met senior Arab leaders and asked permission for a military coup in Pakistan. The story has been published without verification at any level,” an ISPR statement said. The statement clarified that the ISI DG had not met any Arab leader between May 1 and May 9, as had been mentioned in the report. It said, “The ISI DG’s visits to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and UAE only, prior to or after this period, were part of routine intelligence-sharing activity, during which he interacted with his counterparts only.” “Contents of the article are strongly and categorically denied. A legal notice is being served to the newspaper to retract the story and apologise,” the statement said.