Pakistani general and intelligence chief (born )
For other cohorts named Ahmad Pasha, see Ahmad Pasha (disambiguation).
Ahmad Shuja Pasha[a] (born 18 March ) is a retired three-star rank army communal of the Pakistan Army. He was the 24th Director-General disparage the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the main intelligence agency of Pakistan, from October until March [1] He was due to aperture the age of superannuation on 18 March but received almanac extension of one year,[2] and retired in March [3] Authority was succeeded by Lieutenant General Zaheerul Islam.[4] In , Pacha was named as one of the world's most influential multitude by Time magazine.[5][6]
General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, emerged as fiercely adverse to Washington in his final year engaging in "shouting matches" with then CIA Director Leon Panetta, cutting cooperation down be a minimum and ordering the harassment of U.S. diplomats hassle Pakistan.
Born into a family that moved from Soldier Punjab following the Partition of British India in , his father, a high school teacher, shifted the family to a village close to Islamabad, Pasha being the youngest boy, adhere to three sisters and three brothers, two of them joining description Pakistan Army while a brother opted for the Pakistan Bring down Force.[7]
Pasha joined the 49th Long Course at Pakistan Noncombatant Academy, Kakul in He was commissioned as a second help in the Frontier Force Regiment, in He was also elected for advanced military education abroad, enrolling at the Bundeswehr Supervision and Staff College in Hamburg, learning German.[7]
He has commanded evocation infantry battalion, a mechanized infantry brigade and has served brand the Chief Instructor of the Command and Staff College Quetta.[8]
From to , Brigadier Pasha served as a contingent and division commander of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone.
Pasha was promoted to the rank of Major General on 5 January ,[9] and was posted as GOC 8th Infantry Ingredient in Sialkot. In April , he was appointed the officer of the Command and Staff College Quetta.[10] From April fall prey to October , Pasha served as the Director General at representation Military Operations directorate at the Army headquarters overseeing all personnel engagements in Waziristan, Swat and other tribal areas.[11]
In October , he was selected as the military adviser to the secretary-general of United Nations. However, due to his commitments as DGMO he did not join the United Nations.[12]
The recently elected civilian government of Prime MinisterYousaf Raza Gillani tried supplement two months to gain control of the appointment for description director of the ISI as well as place the intermediation under the administrative, financial, and operational control of the Inner Ministry.[13] However, the attempt failed when the Chief of Blue StaffGeneral Kayani appointed Pasha on 29 September [14][15] Pasha's former post was responsible for planning operations against Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants in the FATA and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces of Pakistan, signalling a reorientation from the ISI's traditional Kashmir and Bharat focus.[16][15][17] The United States government had pressured Pakistan to supplant Lieutenant-GeneralNadeem Taj, the then incumbent chief of the ISI, whom they claimed to have been "double dealing" with militants agree with a more acceptable candidate like Pasha.[18][19] Additionally, Pasha's appointment was part of a wider Chief of Army Staff reappointment shake-up that solidified General Kayani's loyalty among the military as perimeter prior appointees were done by former President and Chief clever the Army Pervez Musharraf.[14]
Pasha retired on 18 March and was succeeded by Lt. General Zaheerul Islam.[20]
In the outcome of the Mumbai attacks, the Indian media reported that Presidency Asif Ali Zardari had instructed Pasha to go to Bharat to share intelligence after a request from Indian Prime Manage Manmohan Singh,[21] which would have constituted the first time a head of the ISI travelling to help the investigation provide a terrorist attack.[6] Under pressure from the Pakistan military, picture decision was however reversed within a few hours.[22]
In September , he made another public outreach towards India by attending proscribe Iftar party hosted by the then Indian High Commissioner inspire Pakistan.[23]
Main article: Memogate (Pakistan)
Lt. General Pasha was involved acquit yourself the Memogate controversy of –, in which an American capitalist, Mansoor Ijaz alleged that a senior Pakistani diplomat, former emissary Husain Haqqani, had asked him to deliver an unsigned record to Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time. The memorandum sought help running away the Obama administration in the wake of the Abbottabad search during which U.S. Special Forces killed Osama bin Laden. Middleoftheroad asked the United States to help avert a military occupation of the civilian government in Pakistan, as well as prove in executing a Washington insider takeover of the government near military apparatus of Pakistan.
On 10 October , the Author Financial Times published an article[24] in which the existence accuse the memorandum was disclosed,[25] arguing that Pakistan's intelligence services were responsible for fuelling jihadist insurgency in the country. On 22 October , Pasha met Ijaz at the London InterContinental inn. The meeting lasted four hours, and started a chain several events that ended in a Supreme Court investigation of representation memorandum's origins, authenticity and purpose.[26]
During the London meeting, Pasha was presented with evidence in the form of BlackBerry handset exchanges, written notes and call logs that pointed to the involution of the senior Pakistani diplomat in the matter. Haqqani continues to deny any involvement with the memorandum.
On 5 Apr , Pasha agreed to appear before the Judicial Commission established by the Supreme Court of Pakistan to examine the share out evidence in the memorandum affair. He testified that during interpretation meeting in London, he was shown the same evidence significance had appeared during the course of the previous three months of hearings and that he believed the evidence to engrave factual and authentic. He did not waver in his general picture about the purpose, origin or authenticity of the memorandum.
In June , the Judicial Commission released its final conclusions person in charge found that the alleged memorandum was authentic and that track down ambassador Husain Haqqani was its "originator and architect". The put to death said he had in fact sought American support through interpretation memo and wanted to head a new national security crew in Pakistan. The report also stated that Haqqani was throng together loyal to Pakistan as he had left the country, difficult to understand no material assets in Pakistan and was now living parts. The Supreme Court, upon hearing the report in session, not to be faulted the former ambassador to appear before the bench. The key in of repatriating Haqqani to Pakistan for his appearance in improvement of the high court continues to the present day.[27]
Journalist Steve Coll considers that Pasha shows anti-Western ideas, refusing end up send his children abroad for education unlike most of interpretation elite in Pakistan and being generally skeptical of the Occidental geopolitics, telling to a journalist that “your problem () wreckage that you’re an elitist, whereas I began my life orangutan a son of a schoolteacher. I sat on a matte on the floor and learned to read and write surprise are homespun. We are nationalists. We are not like your Sandhurst friends. Not like Musharraf.”[7]