ISI Chief may quit over Osama operation by the US: Report
Pasha may quit as the Pakistan government "looks for a fall guy for the bin Laden debacle", unnamed senior officials were quoted as saying by The Daily Beast, a news website affiliated to Newsweek magazine.
The senior officials said "they recognise that an important head has to roll and soon" to allay domestic and international anger over bin Laden''s presence in Abbottabad, located close to the federal capital of Islamabad.
The officials said the "most likely candidate to be the fall guy is Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha".
They said it was "nearly a done deal". Pakistani analysts with close connections to the military agreed.
"It would make a lot of sense...It's in his (Pasha's) personal and the national interest to take the heat off," said Lt Gen (retired) Talat Masood, one of Pakistan's leading defence analysts.
An official statement issued yesterday after a meeting of Corps Commanders chaired by army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani said the military admitted its "own shortcomings in developing intelligence on the presence of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan".
It added that "an investigation has been ordered into the circumstances that led to this situation".
The Daily Beast reported that Pakistanis were furious that the ISI and the powerful military, which control national security policy, "could have been so incompetent not to know that the al Qaeda leader was comfortably holed up in Abbottabadd", only 80 km north of Islamabad.
"Never before have the military and the ISI come under such criticism," said Masood.
People are angry that the military, which gets the lion's share of the budget, could be totally unaware that US helicopters had violated Pakistani airspace during the raid that killed bin Laden on Monday.
Pakistani officials, both from the civilian government and the military, have said the US did not inform them about the raid.
"People are outraged...They see this as the fault of the military in which they have invested so much trust," Masood was quoted as saying.
However, a senior ISI officer told The Daily Beast he could not confirm the report and he had no knowledge of Pasha being "pressured into resigning".
The officer said, "It's far from routine for someone to resign over failures. But someone has to resign."
A
former
ISI
officer
was
more
blunt,
the
website
reported.
"It
was
a
great
failure
of,
and
an
embarrassment
to
Pakistani
intelligence.
The
pressure
is
mounting
for
Pasha
to
resign,"
he
said.
Pasha's
resignation
could
be
the
first
step
in
a
process
of
rebuilding
that
badly
damaged
confidence,
Masood
and
senior
Pakistani
officials
said.
"It
could
ease
a
lot
of
pressure,"
Masood
said.
It
would
also
help
rehabilitate
the
army's
and
the
ISI's
badly
tarnished
image.
The
senior
Pakistani
officials
said
Pasha
was
never
keen
on
the
ISI
job
in
the
first
place
as
he
had
no
background
in
intelligence
and
was
an
infantry
and
armour
officer
in
previous
commands.
He was, however, very close to Kayani, who insisted he take the job when he was nominated as army chief in 2008.
Pasha had served under Kayani's command as an infantry officer and had served as head of military operations just as Kayani had.
Kayani also headed the ISI during 2004-07 until former military ruler Pervez Musharraf appointed him army chief.
Pasha has been given two extensions as the ISI chief, the latest earlier this year.
PTI