Author: IANS
Publication: The Times of India
Date: September 18, 2011
URL: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-09-18/india/30171704_1_pak-nsa-shuja-pasha-ajmal-amir-kasab
Pakistan's sacked national security adviser
Mahmood Durrani has claimed he had "written authority and had conferred
with the ISI" chief before admitting to the media that 26/11 Mumbai terrorist
Ajmal Amir Kasab was a Pakistani, shows a US cable revealed by WikiLeaks.
Prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani axed Durrani
January 7, 2009, and a day later he met US ambassador Anne Patterson. Durrani
told Patterson that he had consulted with ISI chief general Shuja Pasha about
announcing Kasab was Pakistani.
The ISI chief had been very specific that
the government wanted to disseminate that information, reported Dawn. The
cable points out Durrani saying he was one of the four people authorized,
in writing, to make such statements on behalf of the government.
The Pakistan government, however, did not
coordinate the release of the information with foreign secretary Salman Bashir,
first denying it and then confirming it. The PM learnt about the statements
when he was in Lahore and out of the loop, the cable says and Gilani decided
to fire Durrani for not consulting him. The US envoy went on to say Gilani
had received a memo authorizing Durrani to confirm Kasab's nationality, but
he may not have seen it.
