ISLAMABAD – Defending the role of Pakistan’s intelligence agencies, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani told the National Assembly that ISI DG Lt Gen Shuja Pasha had visited the US with the consent of the government and Islamabad would fully support Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s initiative for reconciliation in his country. “We should not doubt and cast any aspersion on the roe of our intelligence agencies as they watch Pakistan’s interest,” he said in response to leader of opposition Chaudhry Nisar’s remarks who wanted the government to explain the purpose of ISI DG’s visit to the US and the PM’s visit to Kabul.
He said Pakistan was cooperating with the US in defence, intelligence and political fields and Pasha’s visit was part of that cooperation. “Some section of the Western media and others have been claiming that Pakistan’s military establishment has friction with the civilian government, but the recent joint visit of military and civilian leadership proved all such rumours false…..We proved that we are on the same page,” he said. “We had meetings with the high-ups of Afghan High Peace Council and others….
We evolved mechanism for talks between Pakistan and Afghanistan to bring stability to both countries. At the first tier, Pakistan’s prime minister, ISI chief, foreign minister and Afghanistan’s president, foreign minister and intelligence chief will be engaged in talks, while at the second tier, representatives of the army, intelligence agencies and foreign offices of both countries will find ways for stability in both countries,” he said. Gilani said Pakistan needed a peaceful and stable Afghanistan.
“If Pakistan succeeds in this war, US will succeed and if Pakistan fails, US will fail,” he said, adding that he had told visiting US speaker that no unfortunate incident should take hostage Pak-US strategic dialogue. Gilani said drone attacks were creating troubles for both the military and civilian leadership of Pakistan. Earlier, Opposition Leader Nisar Ali Khan said drone attacks were intolerable and criticised the government for its failure to get them halted.
