Pakistan’s intelligence chief has reportedly asked the United States to stop its drone strikes in the country, reported a local newspaper, touching on an issue that has become more sensitive since the killing of Osama bin Laden the strained ties between the two countries. Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director Ahmad Shuja Pasha made the request in a meeting on Saturday with CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell. “We will be forced to respond if you do not come up with a strategy that stops the drone strikes,” Pasha is reported to have told Morell.
However, several Pakistani officials reached by Reuters said they had no information on the meeting. “With the drone strikes our stance is very clear – they are much more harmful than they help,” said military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas. “With the CIA and the ISI it is also very clear – it (the CIA) should be sharing with them (the ISI) what the number of operatives here is, and where they are working, what they are doing, that sort of thing.”
