ISLAMABAD – Have you ever heard of former Pakistani spymaster Lt General(retired) Asad Durrani before his controversial book was launched in NewDelhi on May 23 and why he was barred from leaving his country? If no, thenhere is your chance to know the man who made headlines in internationalmedia throughout last week.
Durrani, a former Director General of the Inter-Services Intelligence(ISI), came into the limelight after the launching of the controversialbook The Spy Chronicles: RAW, ISI and the Illusion of Peace, which heco-authored with his contemporary Indian spy chief Amarjit Singh Dulat anda journalist Aditya Sinha. Durrani who has also served as a diplomat,himself missed the book launch as he was denied Indian visa.
Soon after the launching of the unique book of dialogues, Pakistan army topbrass summoned Durrani for explanation about his revelations in the bookand his name was included in the Exit Control List (ECL). He became thefirst Pakistani intelligence chief whose name was put on the ‘no-fly’ listand was barred from leaving the country.
In the first of its kind book, the former spy chief of Pakistan and theex-Indian spy chief are featured in conversation and discussed topicsincluding everything related to India-Pakistan ties: the surgical strikes,Kulbhushan Jadhav, Osama Bin Laden, Nawaz Sharif and the disputed Kashmir.The book also draws comparison of RAW and ISI, Hafiz Saeed and even a talkon the idea of ‘Akhand Bharat’ (confederation of India, Pakistan andBangladesh) among many others. As they could not meet in their homecountries, the conversations, guided by Sinha, took place in cities such asIstanbul, Bangkok and Kathmandu.
Durrani was a ‘career spy’ as he belonged to the Military Intelligence unitof the army. He had served as chief of Military Intelligence (MI) in 1988before he was appointed as ISI chief in 1990.
Born to a Pashtun family, he rose in the army echelon and retired as athree star military general in 1993. He graduated from the prestigiousGovernment College Lahore (now university) in 1959, and was commissionedfrom the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA) in 1960. During his 34 years withthe army, he served in a number of command, staff and instructionalappointments, and took part in the wars of India-Pakistan wars of 1965 and1971, and the Soviet war in Afghanistan.
Durrani is also a graduate of the German General Staff Academy and has donea stint as Pakistan’s defence attaché in Germany from 1980 to 1984. Afterhis retirement from the army, he was appointed as the Ambassador ofPakistan to Germany May 1994 to May 1997 by the late prime minister BenazirBhutto. He also served as Ambassador of Pakistan to Saudi Arabia from 2000to 2003 after the bloodless military coup by former Army Chief GeneralPervez Musharraf.
His key appointments included an instructorship at the PMA and at theCommand and Staff College Quetta; Director General, Military Intelligence;Director General, Inter-Services Intelligence; Inspector General, Trainingand Evaluation at GHQ; and Commandant, National Defence College. He retiredin May 1993.Important and secret missions
Durrani is in trouble now at the age of 77 as he is privy to many importantand secret missions — be it the Afghan Jihad, Kashmir uprising in 1989 orthreating and bribing politicians in Pakistan to make or break civiliangovernments. These are some of the reasons the Pakistan army has initiateda formal inquiry against him in an unprecedented move suggesting that thecontroversy may not end anytime soon. As he failed to give a satisfactoryreply, the army constituted a Court of Inquiry to be headed by a three-stargeneral to probe Durrani’s actions.
He has discussed in the book some of the thorny issues that have kept tiesbetween Pakistan and India strained for decades. In the book, Durrani madecertain observations, including a claim that then prime minister Yusuf RazaGilani was fully on-board regarding the US Navy Seals operation againstOsama Bin Laden in Abbottabad and that a special deal was struck betweenthe US and Pakistan in this regard. This piece of information coming froman ex-spymaster certainly hurts Pakistan’s army top brass who had beendenying any knowledge about the Osama Bin Laden operation.
Some politicians have also turned against him. Well, there is background tothis as well.
In 1994, Nawaz Sharif accused Durrani and the then army chief Mirza AslamBeg of wanting to sell “heroin to pay for the country’s covert militaryoperations in early 1991”. Sharif claims he did not approve the plan. Hemade these accusations in 1994, a year after he lost the general electionto Benazir Bhutto. Durrani and Beg who had retired by that time denied theallegations.
However, in 2008, Durrani acknowledged “distributing money to the allianceagainst Benazir Bhutto” in the 1993 general election.
Durrani also believed that the Lal Masjid operation against religiousextremists by Musharraf was a disaster and proved to be the precursor ofsuicide bombings and that Pakistan could swap convicted Indian spyKulbhushan Jadhav at some point.
At one point, Durrani boasted that none of ISI “operators ever defected orwas caught on camera”.
He is currently a Fellow at ISSI as part of the ISS-Hanns Seidel FoundationDistinguished Fellowship Programme. He is also working on his memoirs ofhis career while in the army, intelligence and in diplomacy. Durrani isalso the recipient of coveted presidential award Hilal-e-Imtiaz (military)for his services. He may lose this honour if the military court convictshim for his alleged breach of army conduct for revealing ‘secret’information in the book. – Gulf News