Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency has categorically denied any links with the Taliban.The Daily Times quoted ISI Director General Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha as saying that the ISI is a professional agency and does not have links with any militant outfit, including the Taliban. Pasha's remarks came during a meeting with Central Intelligence Agency chief Leon Panetta, National Security Adviser Lieutenant General James Jones and other officials.
Pakistan Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has approved an extension to lieutenant general ahmad shuja Pasha as director general of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence for a period of one year.The decision to retain general Pasha in uniform and as ISI DG was taken because of his commendable role in the ongoing war against terrorism, The News quoted a well-placed defence source, as saying.
High Commissioner Sabharwal and the ISI DG were tight-lipped about the developments. When this scribe told Lt Gen Pasha that Pakistan was doing a lot to improve relations with India but the response from India was not very encouraging, he said, "Let's hope for the best, things will definitely improve."
Amid intense US pressure to deliver on the war on terror, the chief of Pakistan's powerful Inter Services Intelligence has been shunted out of Islamabad and replaced by Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, considered close to the reform-minded Army Chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.
When then ISI director Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha visited Washington, DC for a meeting with CIA Director Michael Hayden, he admitted that the planners of the Mumbai attacks included some 'retired Pakistani officers' and that the attackers had 'ISI links, but this had not been an authorised ISI operation.'