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Pakistan axe security advisor

by Sanjay Jha | January 7, 2009 at 08:10 pm

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Pakistani government has sacked its National Security Advisor Major General (retd) Mehmud Ali Durrani after he went on to confirm Mumbai carnage suspect Ajmal Kasab's Pak nationality.

This action has fuelled growing speculation about increasing fissure within the Pakistan government. Pakistan government has been denying any kind of involvement with Mumbai terror attack. There are reports in Pakistani media about tensions between the President and the Prime minister on various issues.

It was utterly confusing day for Pakistan full of flip-flops. After National Security Advisor confirmed Mumbai gunmen's Pakistani connection, soon after, Pakistani Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir denied the report but again Information Minister Sherry Rehman confirmed that Ajmal Kasab was in fact a Pakistani national and said that investigations regarding him and his gang’s role were continuing.

The government has finally admitted that Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving gunman of the November attacks in Mumbai, is a Pakistani national.

The Foreign Office spokesman, who is currently in Kabul said, “According to our preliminary investigations, Ajmal Kasab is a Pakistani national. Our investigations are continuing.”

Coming on the heels of this admission, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani sacked his National Security Adviser Major General (retd) Mehmud Ali Durrani for giving a statement on Ajmal Kasab without taking him into confidence.

Before the formal announcement, Prime Minister Gilani told Geo News on telephone that Durrani had given a statement to an Indian news channel regarding Ajmal Kasab without taking him into confidence.

The prime minister said that Durrani’s statement had tarnished the country’s image. “So I decided to sack him,” he told Geo News.

Earlier, the Foreign Office was reluctant to confirm the report with even Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir denying Kasab’s nationality in an interview to an Indian TV channel. His ministry was only willing to do so after other senior officials and ministers from other ministries came out in the open and confirmed Kasab’s nationality when asked by the foreign news agencies.

Confusion reigned supreme in Pakistan on Wednesday evening with several official voices speaking at the same time, but ensuring that they were not on the same page regarding the nationality of Ajmal Kasab. These officials proved to the world that they were strangers to ‘coordination’, and nobody knew who was in charge.

As far as Kasab’s nationality is concerned it was the Ministry of Information that had the final word in interaction with AP and Reuters where Information Minister Sherry Rehman confirmed that Ajmal Kasab was a Pakistani national. Later, state-run television carried the version of the minister. In the end the Foreign Office was left with no choice but to agree.