ISI chief Pasha snubs Holbrooke and Mullen

Washington, Apr 8 (PTI) Apparently upset with their
remarks over alleged link between ISI, Taliban and Al-Qaeda,
Pakistani spy agency chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha refused to
meet visiting US Special Representative Richard Holbrooke and
American military commander Admiral Mike Mullen.

"Islamabad carefully stage-managed this unprecedented
snub by the ISI chief as a means of telegraphing its
resentment over a number of issues brewing between Washington
and Islamabad," Stratfor, a US think-tank, reported.

This sudden display of confidence on the part of
Islamabad will complicate the Obama administration's strategy
on the Taliban, the think tank said Tuesday.

Among the issues of resentment by ISI include, criticism
from Mullen and US Central Command chief Gen David Petraeus,
who said the intelligence agency was still dealing with the
Taliban and Al-Qaeda and the increasing US unmanned aerial
vehicle strikes in the Pakistani tribal belt.

The ISI and its support base in Pakistan establishment
is also upset with American strategy of treating Afghanistan
and Pakistan as one theatre and the US's move to involve India
in Afghanistan, Stratfor said.

"The snub is also part of an emerging consensus between
Pakistan's military and civilian government that Islamabad
needs to increase its bargaining power with the US as an ally
in the war against militant Islamists," the report said.

Stratfor observed that the increase in attacks in recent
weeks has also led to a national realisation that Pakistan
needs its own counterterrorism policy. The first step in
formulating such a strategy involves showing that Islamabad is
not simply following the US lead.

"The ISI chief's refusal to meet with top US officials
visiting the country is also informed by the need to counter
the view on the home front that Pakistan is subservient to US
interests, a view that jihadists are exploiting to advance
their agenda," it said.

During their visit to Islamabad Tuesday, Holbrooke and
Mullen met Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari; Prime
Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani; Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood
Qureshi; Army Chief Gen Ashfaq Kayani and Opposition party
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Nawaz Sharif. PTI LKJ
PMR