ISLAMABAD ā AĀ newĀ letter that harks back to 2010 has revealed that the former Ambassador to US Husain Haqqani was given exclusive powers to renew visas for 36 CIA agents despite instructions from Foreign Ministry to not review the visas of agents.
āThe Prime Minister has been pleased to decide that the ambassador in the Washington will be empowered, with the immediate effect, to issue visas valid up to one year without the Embassy having to refer each such aforementioned visa application to the concerned authorities in Pakistan,ā the letter reads.
The letter dated 18th January 2010, comes as a new shocking revelation amid the uproar and controversy over Haqqaniās claims that he had facilitated the presence of aĀ large numberĀ of CIA operatives in Pakistan to track down Osama bin Laden.
Prior to this, a letter from the ministry of foreign affairs had instructed the mission in the US to not review the visas of 36 CIA agents forcing the then prime minister of Pakistan to grant special powers to Haqqani to renew the visas.
On Friday, Former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani rebuked all allegations surfaced by a letter of empowering Hussain Haqqani, the then ambassador of Pakistan in Washington,Ā to directly issue diplomatic visas to Americans without clearance from relevant authorities.
He said that the letter directs the ambassador to ensure timely visas not bypass visa conditions. āThis was to speed up the process.ā
However, Haqqani said that he had consulted both the civil and military security wings in the embassy before issuing visas to US officials.
Mr Haqqani did not say if he had issued visas without informing the government but maintained that he had consulted security personnel at the embassy before approving the applications.
āI have consistently said no unauthorised visas were issued by the embassy in Washington while I was the ambassador,ā he said.
Haqqani explained that the real issue was presence of Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan adding thatĀ institutional failings should be examined instead ofĀ blaming an individual unfairly.
The former ambassador said the prime minister Gillaniās recently leaked executive order was āesĀsenĀtially a general executive orderā establishing procedure and authorising the ambassador to issue visas requested by the US State DepĀartment without referral to Islamabad.
āUpon receiving that authorisation, the internal embassy system was to delegate scrutiny to Defence Attacheās office and CounĀsellor representing interior ministry,ā he wrote in an e-mail to Dawn News.
SOURCE:
Categories: Asia, Pakistan, Pakistan Military, Pakistan Police, The Muslim Times, United States
Well, I had an interesting ‘encounter’ with some CIA guys in 2001 (before the US invasion of Afghanistan). I was flying Zurich – Dubai – Islamabad a couple of weeks after 9/11, when it was expected that the US will invade Afghanistan and refugees will flow into Pakistan. My Swissair plane had an encounter with a flock of birds and returned to Zurich. Another plane was made ready for us. We reached Dubai a few hours late and of course had missed our connection flight. The passengers who missed the flight were re-booked via PIA via Karachi. The PIA counter staff issued one ticket for 7 passengers, me (Economy Class) and 6 Americans in Business Class with diplomatic passports. As I was the senior one and looked most respected (I suppose?!) the ticket was given to me. – The Americans in Business Class were worried that they might miss the connection in Karachi in case they last sight of me. Consequently they invited me to join them in business class, so that they could ‘keep an eye on me’. I then was able to follow their conversations all the way from Dubai to Karachi. They were either CIA or military intelligence, planning for the US invasion. I asked them what they were planning for Afghanistan. One guy said ‘we will bring the King back’. He had no idea that the poor old man was around 95 and in a wheel chair. (‘Ah, really?’). One of them was based in India and spoke Urdu/Hindi. Others were joking about their time in places like Moscow, Hanoi and other ‘interesting places’. Ah well. in any case: No country is independent that relies on US$ hand-outs… whether from Washington or from Riyadh … and ‘special visas’ need to be issued …