Pakistan's ISI chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha has made it to the list of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world along with dignitaries like United States President Barrack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has dismissed reports that he was considering a proposal to grant another extension to Inter-Services Intelligence chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha and said a decision on this issue would be made at the "appropriate time".
Apparently upset with their remarks over alleged link between Inter Services Intelligence, Taliban and Al-Qaeda, the Pakistani spy agency chief Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha refused to meet visiting US Special Representative Richard Holbrooke and American military commander Admiral Mike Mullen.
Pakistan government is seriously contemplating the removal of powerful army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and ISI head Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha against the backdrop of a standoff on a memo alleging an army plot to seize power, a media report said on Monday.
The top Central Intelligence Agency official in Pakistan has been called back home from Islamabad after his cover was blown allegedly by the Inter Services Intelligence, resulting in a serious threat to his life. The 'purposeful' leaking of identity of the CIA station chief in Islamabad -- named in Pakistani media as Jonathan Banks -- allegedly by the Inter Services Intelligence is in retaliation of a lawsuit filed against the Pakistani spy agency's chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha.
The confidential document shows that the then British Foreign Secretary David Miliband had called Zardari, asking him to send the ISI chief to India, to which the President readily agreed. He, however, was overruled by the Pakistani Army led by General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani.
The 26-page lawsuit accusing the ISI of aiding and abetting the LeT in the slaughter of 166 people was filed before a New York Court on November 19, following which the Brooklyn court issued summons to Major Samir Ali, Azam Cheema, Ahmed Shuja Pasha, Nadeem Taj and Major Iqbal of the Inter-Services Intelligence of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and and Hafiz Saeed of the Jammat ud Dawaa.
As pressure mounted on Islamabad to move against the Haqqani network, accused by United States of carrying out a spate of attacks in Kabul, Inter-Services Intelligence chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha rushed to Washington to hold a quite meeting with the new Central Investigation Agency head Gen David Petraeus.
The case filed in New York city against the ISI chief by Linda Ragsdale on August 12 prompted the court to issue summons to the ISI and the officials named, following which it was decided to merge all the four cases in the city. Ragsdale was shot in her back by one of the LeT terrorist at the Oberoi Trident hotel.
Pakistan's top political leadership was on Friday briefed by Army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on the security situation in the country after suspected Taliban militants carried out a series of brazen attacks on military and police establishments.
Inter-Services Intelligence chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha has embarked on a secret visit to China that is being seen as part of Pakistan's efforts to reduce its dependence on the United States in the wake of strained military and intelligence ties.
Inter Services Intelligence's powerful chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha has warned India that any Abbottabad-like attack by it would invite a befitting response from Pakistan. Pasha's warning came as he addressed the in-camera joint session of the Senate and National Assembly held behind closed doors on Friday. Pasha is facing fire over the inability of the ISI to track down Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, where he was living.
Pakistan is preparing to block a lawsuit in a United States court that alleges complicity of its spy chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha in the audacious 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, on the grounds that it will pour "gasoline on the fire" of India-Pakistan relations.
Inter-Services Intelligence chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha has embarked on a foreign trip to an undisclosed location against the backdrop of reports that he may step down over the debacle of the Pakistani military's failure to detect Al Qaeda head Osama bin Laden's presence in the country.
Pakistan's ISI chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha held a secret meeting with former military ruler Pervez Musharraf in Dubai and advised him not to return to the country, according to a media report on Monday.
Inter-Services Intelligence head Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, a close aide of Pakistan Army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, is heading for a likely rare second term.
Amid India's suspicions of the involvement of the Inter Services Intelligence in the planning of Mumbai terror strikes, the chief of the Pakistani spy agency on Friday called on Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in Islamabad.The Director General of the ISI, Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, met Gilani and briefed him on the prevailing security situation, an official statement said.No further details about the meeting were available.
The report regarding Pakistan Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani extending the tenure of Inter-Services Intelligence Director General Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha by a year clearly suggests that nothing much has changed in the country and the two still rule the roost, says an article in the New York Times.While experts believe that Kayani's move may also pave the way for his own extension in service, the 'weak' civilian set-up in Pakistan has no other choice.
Insiders say that General Kayani's decision to extend Pasha's service has been made to ensure the continuity of the army's offensive against extremists in the troubled tribal regions of the country.
About the perception that the ISI was a rogue agency that was out of the civilian government's control and indulged in its own agenda, Pasha said, "I report regularly to the president and take orders from him." Many may think in a different direction, and everyone is allowed to think differently, but no one can dare disobey a command or even do something that was not ordered, he added
Security analsyst abd rediff columnist B Raman on why a new ISI chief was anointed in Pakistan.
There is no reason to believe that anyone in the highest ranks of the Pakistan government knew about the location of Osama bin Laden, the White House has said.
But the ISI chief did not retire giving the impression that he has won General Asim Munir's trust, notes Rana Banerji who headed the Pakistan desk at RA&W.
Former Inter-Services Intelligence chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha Pasha knew of Osama bin Laden's hideout in Pakistan and LeT founder Hafiz Saeed was in regular contact with the slain Al Qaeda chief, a media report said on Wednesday.
"We want good ties with all neighbours including India and Afghanistan," he told the Senators.
General Asad Durrani's disclosures could leave considerable egg on the face of those currently wielding the stick in Pakistan, notes Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency.
Former Pakistani military dictator Pervez Musharraf possibly knew about slain Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his place of hiding, an eminent British journalist who reported for years from Afghanistan and Pakistan for the New York Times has claimed.
Voicing his frustration over the double game played by the Inter-Services Intelligence in the war against terror after 9/11, a former central intelligence agency chief has said that "duplicitous" is a gentler way to describe the notorious Pakistani spy agency, which has close links with terror groups.
Former Inter-Services Intelligence chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha has admitted that the deadly Haqqani network was created by it and America's Central Intelligence Agency and claimed that the insurgent group's chief Jalaluddin Haqqani had "in fact been invited to the White House by President (Ronald) Reagan".
In his latest book 'Playing to the Edge', Michael Hayden, the former CIA director said that Pasha had conceded that some of the powerful spy agency's retired members were engaged in training those involved in the heinous crime but refused to take action.
By weakening Sharif, the corps commanders could have a final say in important matters like relations with India, dealing with Taliban militants, interacting with Americans and once again achieving strategic depth in post-NATO Afghanistan. Which is why they may be behind the unrest in Pakistan led by Imran Khan and Dr Tahirul Qadri, says Shahzad Raza.