Gilani appoints new ISI chief
Ending weeks of speculations, Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Friday appointed a new chief of the Inter- Services Intelligence (ISI) to replace Lt. General Ahmed Shuja Pasha.
“The PM has appointed Lt. General Zaheerul Islam as the news director-general of the ISI,” a spokesperson of the Prime Minister’s office said. General Islam is the commander of the V Corps, one of the most important corps in the Army and based in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city and its commercial hub.
General Islam has earlier served as the deputy director-general of the ISI as a major general. He was then promoted to the rank of Lt. General and moved to Karachi.
General Pasha, who retires on March 18, had requested Army Chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani in December to relieve him of his duties as the ISI chief. General Pasha was appointed in 2008, and who oversaw some of the stormiest times in the US-Pakistan relationship.
General Pasha’s departure, after two extensions, is likely to come as a relief to the American intelligence community, which had a difficult relationship with him in the recent months.
That relationship became more difficult after US special forces found and killed Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in May 2011.
Bin Laden’s presence in Pakistan, by some accounts for up to five years, raised suspicions in Washington that ISI had been doing business with, or sheltering, US’ number one enemy.
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