Pakistan in Media

Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had informed the federal government about their objections to the KLB in early July 2009. The ISI DG wrote a detailed letter to the prime minister and informed him that the bill had objectionable language about Pakistan Army. He also stated that the main target of the KLB was the nuclear programme of Pakistan and the government should not accept any conditionality targeting the nuclear security of Pakistan.

The prime minister sent a copy of the said letter to the president and another to the Pakistani mission in Washington DC through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Pakistani mission in Washington DC gave a detailed response on the objections raised by the ISI DG on August 11, 2009 and assured the government that it will try its best to safeguard national interests.

Next day on August 12, the mission sent an advance copy of the KLB to the Foreign Ministry in Islamabad and the objections raised by the ISI DG were still present in the draft. The army waited for another month. The consolidated text of KLB was sent by the Pakistani mission on September 14, 2009. It repeatedly claimed in its assessments that Ambassador Husain Haqqani had tried his level best to safeguard national interest but not a single objection raised by the ISI DG was removed from the bill till the end of September 2009. The army came out with a press release on the KLB on October 7.

Top US officials have claimed in private conversations with this scribe that Ambassador Haqqani never informed the US Congress or the State Department about the objections of Pakistan Army on the KLB.