London, August 09: Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari has claimed that he is in full control of the powerful ISI and that it is “completely accountable now” to the civilian government.
Zardari also insisted that the days when the country’s spy agencies, which have long been accused of working with militant outfits in the region, were more powerful than the country’s elected leaders are over.
“I think that everybody is completely accountable now…The only people who need to have more room for understanding is the international community, who need to support us more,” the Pakistan president told The Telegraph in an interview.
He was responding to questions about ISI and British prime minister David Cameron’s remarks that Pakistan should not “export terror” to countries like India and Afghanistan, which is understood to have been aimed at the spy agency.
His comments came close on the heels of leaked US documents accusing the ISI of aiding militants, including the Taliban in Afghanistan.
“…the days when it (ISI) was more powerful than Pakistan’s elected leaders are over,” the paper quoted him as saying.
Zardari was in Britain on a five-day visit aimed at burying a diplomatic row between the two countries after Cameron’s “export of terror” remarks.
ISI chief Lieutenant General Shuja Pasha had cancelled a scheduled visit to Britain in protest against Cameron’s remarks.
Pasha was scheduled to travel to Britain with a high-level delegation for talks on anti-terror cooperation in early August but called off his visit.
Zardari described his meeting on Friday with Cameron as a session of “straight talk”, which had led to the two becoming “friends” for the future.
“He also claimed to have won British backing for his idea of a Marshall plan to rebuild Afghanistan and Pakistan, ending the poverty that he said left millions of young men in both countries as jihadist fodder,” the paper said.
–Agencies