No force can make ISI chief to appear before US court: Gilani

Rezaul H Laskar
Islamabad, Dec 23 (PTI) Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf
Raza Gilani on Thursday said that no force could pressurise
the ISI chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha to appear in a US court
to face a lawsuit filed by relatives of victims of the Mumbai
attacks.
"The ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence)... is an
extremely important (and) sensitive institution of this
country. If they do not agree to go to the American court,
then no one can send them," Gilani said.
His remarks came as media reports from New York said
the plaintiffs in two US lawsuits accusing Pakistan's spy
chief of nurturing terrorists involved in the 2008 Mumbai
attacks are hoping for a historic outcome recalling the
Lockerbie settlement.
The lawyers of the victims said they hope to win a
deal like the one struck with Libya over the 1988 bombing of
the Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. The plaintiffs
in that case won a USD 1.5 billion settlement.
The Pakistan Prime Minister was responding to concerns
expressed by lawmakers in the National Assembly or lower house
of parliament about the lawsuit filed by the family of two
Jewish victims of the Mumbai incident.
He described the country's spy agency as an "extremely
important" organisation.
Earlier, Leader of Opposition Chaudhry Nisar Ali
Khan described the summoning of the ISI chief by the American
court as an attack on Pakistan's honour.
He said the Prime Minister should send a Pakistani
official to the US court to register a protest and Foreign
Office should clarify its stand on the matter.
The court in Brooklyn has summoned current ISI
chiefs Lt Gen Pasha and his predecessor Nadeem Taj and
Lashker-e-Taiba leaders, including Hafiz Saeed, to appear
before it next month in connection with the suit filed by
relatives of Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife, who
were among the 166 people killed during the attacks.
The lawsuit alleges that the ISI "provided critical
planning, material support, control and coordination for the
attacks" to the Pakistan-based LeT.
Indian officials have blamed the LeT for carrying out
the attacks and said elements of the ISI and Pakistan Army
played a role in planning and facilitating the assault.
Pakistani authorities arrested seven suspects,
including LeT operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, on
charges of planning and financing the attacks but their trial
has been marred by repeated delays and controversies. PTI RHL
RCJ


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