The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) on Thursday told the Senate Standing Committee on Defence that security establishment’s talks with the Taliban had entered an advanced stage and some major breakthrough was expected in the coming days, Pakistan Today has learnt reliably.
The Senate defence body was given briefing at the ISI Headquarters, but Senator Raza Rabbani of the PPP and Senator Professor Khurshid Ahmed of the JI did not attend the briefing. “The senior officials of the ISI told parliamentarians that they would continue seeking guidance from parliament regarding the matters of national security,” said a participant of the meeting, seeking not to be named. He said the memo issue was not discussed in the meeting as it was not on the agenda.
The meeting of Senate Standing Committee on Defence and Defence Production was attended by committee chairman Javed Ashraf Qazi, Senator Raja Zafarul Haq, Senator Haji Adeel, Tahir Hussain Mashhadi and Senator Sardar Ali Khan and Senator Faisal Raza Abidi. Senate Deputy Chairman Jan Jamali and Senator Tariq Azim are abroad, while Maulana Muhammad Khan Sherani could not turn up due to poor health. ISI Director General Ahmad Shuja Pasha briefed the committee about the mission, working and activities of ISI in the war on terrorism.
According to another participant of the meeting, Lt Gen Pasha and his deputies informed parliamentarians that Pakistan’s policy in the war against terror was undergoing an overall review to correspond to changes in American plans in Afghanistan.
“Some of the parliamentarians wanted to know about ISI’s working in political affairs, but the ISI officials evaded these questions, saying the ISI was not engaged in the country’s political matters,” a participant of the meeting said, adding that ISI officials told lawmakers that they had been doing what the government of the time asked them to do.
The sources further said that members of the committee were briefed about the Tribal Areas, important issues of frontiers, situation in Afghanistan and policy about the war or terror. They said during the briefing, the ISI chief and his subordinates confirmed that parleys with the Taliban, particularly those operating inside Pakistan, were at an advanced stage and some major breakthrough was expected.
Another participant of the meeting said the ISI officials were confidant that there would be some big surprises on this front.
“When a member of the committee asked about the presence of Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan, ISI officials said that it was not only its failure, but a failure of the CIA and other top spy agencies of the world that were allies of the US in the war on terror,” the source said.