Pakistani opposition seeks details of spy chief’s US visit http://www.irna.ir/ENNewsShow.aspx?NID=30338304&SRCH=1

Opposition leader in Pakistani parliament Wednesday sought details about visit of the country’s spy chief to the United States. Chief of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha, has held talks with the Central Intelligence Agency’s chief, Leon E. Panetta, and other senior officials in the CIA headquarters in Virginia, over the past few days. Reports said that the ISI and CIA chiefs met at a time when relationship between the spy agencies has strained over the past several months. Gen. Pasha has sought details about the number and operations of the CIA agents and US special forces on Pakistani soil and also cut the size of the CIA agents and drone strike, according to reports. Dawn TV reported that the ISI chief has proceeded to Turkey after talks in the United States to brief President Asif Ali Zardari about his talks with the CIA chief and other senior US officials. 

“The Prime Minister should tell the people through this elected house as on whose mandate the ISI chief has visited the United States,” opposition leader, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, said in the National Assembly. “He (Gen. Pasha) is sitting in the US and the world is focusing on him so the parliament and the people should know about details and mandate he has,” Khan said. Nisar, also the central leader of Muslim League-N parry, said that despite condemnation by the President, the Prime Minister and the Army Chief, the US has continued drone strikes in the tribal regions and on Wednesday also carried out a new strike.

He regretted that the joint session of the parliament had demanded halt to the US drone strikes through a unanimous resolution after a17-day debate in the in-camera session but the government has failed to implement the resolution and to stop the strikes. “It is the responsibility of the government to stop the US drone strikes,” the opposition leader said. He also asked the government to tell the nation about the last month’s mysterious release of the CIA contractor, Raymond Davis, who was facing double murder charges. “We will protest if the government failed to tell the truth about the release of Raymond Davis,” Khan said.