New Delhi, November 29
Soon after Pakistan backtracked on sending the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief to India in connection with the Mumbai terror probe, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has blamed the about-turn on a “miscommunication” with India. He said a representative of the spy agency would be sent instead of the ISI chief.
Under intense pressure from the opposition parties back home in Pakistan, Zardari claimed that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, during a telephonic talk with him on Friday, had requested for sending the “director”.
"There was a miscommunication... We had announced that a director will come from my side.. That is what was requested by the Prime Minister and that is what we agreed," the Pakistan President told Karan Thapar's “Devil's Advocate” programme.
He then added that it was too early for the director-generals to meet at the moment. “Let the evidence come to light, let the investigations take its course. Then perhaps there is a position where the directors-general could meet," Zardari said in the interview. Pakistan’s about turn on
the matter came late Friday night after a meeting between President Zardari and Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, chief of the Pakistan army. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was also part of the meeting, which ended in a decision that a representative of the ISI will visit India instead of its director-general Lt Gen Shuja Pasha.
Earlier, Pakistan opposition parties had lambasted the PPP-led government for deciding to send ISI chief to India to share information on intelligence, saying it amounted to “summoning” of the ISI chief by India’s Prime Minister. “The blame game is not the answer to such incidents and it appeared awkward that the ISI chief was going to India almost at the Indian Prime Minister’s summoning,” opposition PML-N spokesman Ahsan Iqbal was quoted by agencies. Iqbal also said the Pakistan government had acted in haste and should instead have offered to form a joint task force with equal responsibility.
