Speculations: Military says ISI chief not quitting job
“It is absolutely baseless. The news is without an iota of truth,” said ISPR Director-General Athar Abbas.
ISLAMABAD:
The Pakistan military categorically denied US media reports that Lt-Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the head of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), may step down over the intelligence agency’s failure to track down slain al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
A US news website ‘Daily Beast’ claimed – quoting unnamed Pakistani officials – that the director-general ISI may quit, as the government frantically searches for a scapegoat for the Bin Laden debacle.
“It is absolutely baseless. The news is without an iota of truth,” said ISPR Director-General Athar Abbas.
However, security officials said that the ISI chief was abroad on a trip to a ‘friendly state’ to discuss the fallout of the Abbottabad operation.
They did not specify.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 7th, 2011.
The Pakistan military categorically denied US media reports that Lt-Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the head of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), may step down over the intelligence agency’s failure to track down slain al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
A US news website ‘Daily Beast’ claimed – quoting unnamed Pakistani officials – that the director-general ISI may quit, as the government frantically searches for a scapegoat for the Bin Laden debacle.
“It is absolutely baseless. The news is without an iota of truth,” said ISPR Director-General Athar Abbas.
However, security officials said that the ISI chief was abroad on a trip to a ‘friendly state’ to discuss the fallout of the Abbottabad operation.
They did not specify.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 7th, 2011.