General
Ahmad Shuja Pasha would have made many mistakes and would have failed on
many fronts but he did wonders in limiting the role of CIA and FBI
agents in Pakistan, the contribution that makes him look different from
many others.
Gen Pasha has been the most hated Pakistani
in Washington and a real pain in the neck for the CIA. For the same
reason, his retirement has brought a sigh of relief to the Intelligence
circles in the US. He was a rare breed of Generals, who would not be
impressed with the influence of Washington and its powerful intelligence
chief.
He has been the most difficult man to tackle for the
Panettas and Patreauses of this world hence there have been demands from
Washington that Pasha should be removed. It was his candidness and
bluntness with his US counterparts, which made him one of the most
powerful spymasters in the world.
Coming from a humble but
well educated family and after having cleanly served the army with
distinction for almost 35 years, Pasha took over as ISI chief, the
position that earned him a lot of embarrassments and controversies.
Failures
connected to the ISI during his tenure as its DG should remain a burden
for him but there is hardly anyone to appreciate how he managed to
limit the role of the American agencies in Pakistan.
Following
9/11 General Musharraf had put the sovereignty of Pakistan at stake and
on sale by giving the kind of free hand to US agents that was simply
unimaginable. “We had no idea how many foreign as well as local agents
of CIA and FBI were operating within the territorial limits of
Pakistan,” an official source said, adding that the American agents were
spread all over.
Not only had Musharraf allowed the CIA and
FBI to hire local agents in Pakistan in the garb of so-called war on
terror, the Americans were also free to move in and out without any
check. “At times we did not know who is coming and who is going, and
what is brought in and what it taken out,” the source said.
This
unimaginable concession for the US officials was first brought under
check by no one else but Pasha on whose orders in October 2009 the
facility of unchecked arrivals and departures with no scrutiny of their
luggage at the Benazir Bhutto International Airport (BBIA) in Islamabad
was formally withdrawn.
Gammon Gate of the BBIA, which was
basically meant for food catering services and had a direct outside
airport link without passing through immigration and customs checks, was
specified for the US officials and for the UN officials too. This
special facility had allowed the Americans to have unchecked arrivals
and departures to and from the Islamabad Airport. The facility was
massively misused and there were reports of even unauthorised and
undeclared import of sensitive material and equipment, including
weapons.
A CAA order, issued on the subject in 2009, did
concede that the customs and immigration authorities have no
arrangements/staff to check the movement and crew and other foreigners,
etc. “The equipment related to aeroplane, the crew and their personal
luggage also passes through this gate. During checking, US vehicles and
the luggage they carry to and from apron area are not properly
searched/checked by the ASF staff deputed to control the entry/exit at
the Gammon Gate,” a document said, adding in view of this, use of the
Gammon Gate by foreigners should be stopped forthwith as it was a
serious security hazard.
In the garb of training, the CIA
spies had their presence in and around vital sites of Pakistan’s
national security. Police College Sihala near Kahuta Nuclear Plant was
one such sensitive site from where Gen Pasha managed to root them out
and packed them back to Washington.
To check the activities of
ruthless members of Blackwater and DynCorp, the ISI under Pasha started
checking the US “officials” and “diplomats” on the roads of Pakistan
and even started questioning them and in some cases even taking them to
police stations.
It was also on the direction of Pasha that
action was launched against DynCorp and its local partner Inter-Risk,
which was issued the prohibited bore licences by the interior ministry
on the request of the US embassy.
Besides pushing the already
present CIA and FBI agents out of Pakistan, Pasha pursued the policy of
strict monitoring of the US visitors. He wanted a tight scrutiny of
every visitor coming from Washington - a move that made the US
administration angry.
Washington put pressure on the rulers in
Islamabad, who in a strange decision had allowed its embassy in
Washington under Hussain Haqqani to issue visas to US officials without
getting clearance from the security agencies of Pakistan.
The
issue of Raymond Davis and May 2 Abbottabad shame brought CIA and the
ISI face to face. Clashes between CIA and ISI had actually begun after
the Army chief’s refusal to lauch operation in North Waziristan, with
Gen Shuja Pasha refusing to cooperate with the CIA unless the
relationship was on an equal footing.
According to one report,
visas to 1545 US employees in the name of diplomats, trainers, NGO
workers or NATO officials were issued controversially and without proper
scrutiny. After the Raymond Davis case, the ISI had asked CIA to
disclose the location of its agents/employees in Pakistan and the nature
of their appointment in Pakistan. After repeated questioning CIA kept
denying that they had so many operatives in Pakistan. The ISI managed to
expel many of them following the release of Raymond Davis - the
incident that was a great embarrassment for Pakistanis - however the
complete cleansing was still not done.
The clashes between ISI
and CIA worsened when Pasha reportedly insisted on the one-point agenda
that ISI would not support any CIA activity in Afghanistan or Pakistan
if they do not declare their operatives in Pakistan. To this effect the
CIA officials said in plain words that no such clarification would be
made to ISI as all visas have been issued duly and by the Pakistani
authorities. However, after a lot of discussion the CIA, according to
the report, agreed to declare 1079 officials, which were operating in
Pakistan under various capacities, but denied to give any clue about
others.
The ISI, on the other hand, had a list of 438 US
officials who were in Pakistan but were not present in any consulate or
embassy staff of any city. Their whereabouts were reportedly asked from
CIA, to which they gave a funny reply that many of them have been lost?
The CIA reportedly claimed that these operatives were used in the FATA
area for the war on terror but in various incidents they have either
been kidnapped or killed by Talibans so now they were no more in
Pakistan. This was something Gen Pasha could not stomach.
Pasha
in his meeting with former CIA chief Panetta in Washington had clearly
stated that if CIA did not trust ISI then ISI too was not bound to keep
the ties as they were. Panetta never expected such a curt reply.
Exchange of harsh words took place between the two, prompting Gen Pasha
to abruptly end his visit. He left USA just 5 hours after his arrival.
Ansar Abbasi
The news
Pakistan Cyber Force
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