With Pasha due to retire, names for probable DG ISI successors crop up
ISI Director General Ahmed Shuja Pasha is due to retire on March 18.
Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director General Ahmed Shuja Pasha is due to retire on March 18 and the government is considering new names for the post, Express News reported on Wednesday.
As reported earlier by The Express Tribune, among the names under consideration for a possible successor are believed to be Chief of General Staff Lt General Wahid Arshad, Corps Commander Karachi Lt-General Muhammad Zahirul Islam and Corps Commander Peshawar Lt-General Khalid Rabbani.
Despite speculations that the government may extend his tenure for a third time in an effort to ease tensions with the military, the DG ISI reportedly told a western diplomat in an informal chat that he wants to go home sooner rather than later.
After heading the country’s premier spy agency since October 2008, Pasha is due to retire this year. He was scheduled to retire in March 2010, but was given extensions, twice.
“I have had enough of it … I want to get out of it,” Pasha was quoted as saying by a diplomat, who met the ISI chief recently.
Recently, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani also dismissed reports that he was considering a proposal to grant another extension, but said a decision on this issue would be made at the “appropriate time”.
As reported earlier by The Express Tribune, among the names under consideration for a possible successor are believed to be Chief of General Staff Lt General Wahid Arshad, Corps Commander Karachi Lt-General Muhammad Zahirul Islam and Corps Commander Peshawar Lt-General Khalid Rabbani.
Despite speculations that the government may extend his tenure for a third time in an effort to ease tensions with the military, the DG ISI reportedly told a western diplomat in an informal chat that he wants to go home sooner rather than later.
After heading the country’s premier spy agency since October 2008, Pasha is due to retire this year. He was scheduled to retire in March 2010, but was given extensions, twice.
“I have had enough of it … I want to get out of it,” Pasha was quoted as saying by a diplomat, who met the ISI chief recently.
Recently, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani also dismissed reports that he was considering a proposal to grant another extension, but said a decision on this issue would be made at the “appropriate time”.