Different authorities talk differently on CIA visa issue

ISLAMABAD: A key member of military establishment during the last PPP tenure categorically said that hundreds of visas to CIA operatives were issued by the then Pakistani ambassador Husain Haqqani in Washington without getting clearance from ISI or involving the then defense attaché.

Once during a weekend, despite an off day the embassy was opened to issue around 400 visas, the source said in a rejoinder to the former Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani statement issued on Friday.

Gillani on Friday spoke to the media, a day after his 14th July 2010 letter made headlines. Through the controversial letter, Gillani as PM decided that “the Ambassador in Washington will be empowered, with immediate effect, to issue visas valid for one year without the Embassy having to refer each such aforementioned visa application to the concerned authorities in Pakistan.”

The letter added, “The Pakistani Embassy in US would issue these visas under intimation to the Prime Minister’s office in Islamabad.”

Addressing a press conference in Multan on Friday, Gillani defending his letter said that the letter directed the ambassador to ensure timely visas and not to bypass visa conditions. “This was to speed up the process,” he said.

He clarified that visas were supposed to be given to those recommended by the State Department of the US, which had to explain the reason for visa issuance. “The letter absolutely does not authorise visa issuance to US special forces which took part in the Abbottabad raid,” he said.

Gillani’s letter dated July 14, 2010, surfaced following the recent controversy generated by Haqqani article in a Washington Post in which he claimed that with the authorisation of the-then elected civilian leaders, he had facilitated the presence of a large number of CIA operatives in Pakistan to track down Osama bin Laden.

Later, Husain Haqqani denied what his article had unambiguously conveyed. Haqqani also insisted that he did not issue visa to any American without the clearance of the military’s representatives in Washington embassy.

However, a key military establishment member of that period insisted that the ISI was not referred the cases of hundreds of visas issued by Haqqani in Washington. The source added that it is also wrong to say that the military representatives in the embassy were consulted while issuing these visas.

Meanwhile, some new documents made circulation in the social media and Whatsapp group on Friday to further complicate the issue. Although the authenticity of these documents could not be confirmed, one of these documents appeared to be an alleged “Confidential” letter of the ministry of foreign affairs conveying to different foreign missions a list of names of 36 CIA operatives with the direction that visas should not be issued to them.

In a document attached with the letter in which the list of 36 CIA officials is given, there is a hand written note saying, “Three months single entry visa please”. It was signed by D&AA on 4th April, 2010 and then signed by an unknown person who apparently disagreed to issue visas to only 8 out of 36 “CIA officials”. The document containing list and these signatures do not show which embassy was processing these cases. However, it apparently suggested it was Pakistani embassy in Washington.

Haqqani triggered controversy by confessing: "Among the security establishment’s grievances against me was the charge that I had facilitated the presence of large numbers of CIA operatives who helped track down bin Laden without the knowledge of Pakistan’s army — even though I had acted under the authorisation of Pakistan’s elected civilian leaders."

The former ambassador had referred to the then president Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani as his "civilian leaders".