NSA sacking brings to fore cracks in Pak ruling establishment

Rezaul H Laskar
Islamabad, Jan 8 (PTI) Pakistan's fragile ruling
establishment was in a messy situation today with President
Asif Ali Zardari said to be angry over Prime Minister Yousuf
Raza Gilani's decision to sack NSA Mahmud Ali Durrani who
publicly admitted that Mumbai terror accused Ajmal Amir Iman
'Kasab' is a Pakistani national.

Durrani, a man handpicked for the key National Security
Adviser's post by Zardari last year, is believed to have
jumped the gun when he told the media that preliminary probe
has established that 22-year-old Kasab is a Pakistani
national.

Hours later, there was confirmation to this from the
Foreign Office but a furious Gilani, who has been in the thick
of a spate of government denials on Kasab being a Pakistani,
axed the NSA.

A statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office said
Durrani was removed for his "irresponsible behaviour" and for
failing to take Gilani and the government into confidence on
national security issues.

Geo News reported that a livid Gilani telephoned the
channel and said Durrani's comments had embarrassed the
government and damaged Pakistan's image.

However, media reports said Durrani had cleared his
admission of Kasab's Pakistani nationality with the powerful
army, the intelligence set-up and the presidency.

Durrani's sacking brought to the fore cracks in the
ruling establishment as Zardari, who is not seeing eye-to-eye
with Gilani on many fronts, felt the Prime Minister had no
business to remove the NSA without keeping him in the loop.

The pro-establishment 'The News' daily said that Gilani
sacked Durrani without consulting the President.

Zardari learnt of Durrani's removal from media reports
and was informed about the move only after Gilani had made the
decision, the report said.

After he was sacked, Durrani, a former general and a
strong votary of close ties between India and Pakistan, said
he had done nothing wrong and that he was "supposed" to tell
the media about Kasab's Pakistani nationality.

"I have not done anything wrong. I wish the government
good luck in tackling security issues. I was supposed to tell
the media that Kasab is a Pakistani," Durrani told NDTV.

Durrani was quoted by Pakistani media as saying that he
had gone public only after the Foreign Office had issued a
statement on the issue. He said Gilani had not sought any
explanation from him before sacking.

A former ambassador to the US, Durrani said that it had
been decided on Tuesday to tell the world that Kasab is a
Pakistani national because "hiding" that any longer made no
sense.

Kasab, the son of a butcher and a school dropout
who was arrested on the night of November 26, had in his
confession statement told investigators that he was part of a
10-member Pakistani squad detailed to carry out the November
26 attack.

Kasab had said he was trained by the Lashkar-e-Toiba
under the guidance of its commander Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi, the
mastermind of the Mumbai strikes. The ten terrorists had
split into five teams of two members each.

Kasab and another terrorist had carried out attacks in
the CST terminus in Mumbai soon after they landed in an
inflatable dingy on the shores of the metropolis. PTI