Durrani's dismissal exposes fissures in Pak ruling party

Fissures within the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party have come to the fore with the sacking of national security adviser (NSA) Mahmud Ali Durrani.

Reports say prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani did not consult president Asif Ali Zardari before firing Durrani, who had been handpicked by the president last year to be the NSA.

Durrani was sacked after he confirmed to the media that terrorist Mohammad Ajmal Amir was a Pakistani national. Gilani was furious because he was not consulted before the announcement was made.

Hours after Indian and Pakistani media yesterday quoted Durrani as saying that Islamabad's preliminary probe had established Ajmal's Pakistani citizenship, an angry Gilani sacked him.

An official statement 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 furious Gilani telephoned the channel and said Durrani's comments had embarrassed the government and damaged Pakistan's image.

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

The pro-establishment daily The News said Gilani sacked Durrani without consulting Zardari. The president learnt of Durrani's removal from media reports and was informed about the move only after Gilani had made the decision, the report said.

Durrani, meanwhile, insisted he had done nothing wrong and that he was "supposed" to tell the media about Ajmal's Pakistani nationality. "I have not done anything wrong," he said. "I wish the government good luck in tackling security issues. I was supposed to tell
the media that he is Pakistani," Durrani told NDTV last night.

Durrani also told The News that he had spoken on Ajmal's nationality only after the foreign office had issued a statement on the same issue. He also said Gilani had not
sought an explanation from him before sacking him.

Government sources and media reports have suggested over the past few weeks that tensions have emerged between Zardari and Gilani, who feels he does not have much say in the decision-making process.

Gilani is also reportedly unhappy about the presidency's direct involvement in the running of the government. He has now reportedly decided to assert his authority and
not allow anyone to "transgress" the line, The News reported. In this connection, he made several changes in the senior bureaucracy last week without consulting anyone.

The prime minister's decision to sack the highly influential member of his cabinet immediately sparked speculation about the growing fissures within the ruling PPP and, perhaps, among the various pillars of the establishment on the handling of crucial and sensitive matters of national security, the Dawn newspaper reported.

There was much confusion last evening after two Pakistani news channels quoted official sources as saying that a preliminary investigation had established that Ajmal was a citizen of Pakistan.

Soon after, foreign secretary Salman Bashir told an Indian news channel that the Pakistani probe had not confirmed the captured terrorist's nationality. Within an hour, Bashir was contradicted by information minister Sherry Rehman and the foreign office
spokesman, both of whom acknowledged Ajmal as a Pakistani citizen.

"The lack of coordination between the various wings of the government, especially on such a sensitive issue that has fuelled tensions between India and Pakistan, is shocking," a diplomatic source told the Press Trust of India.

It is believed that the Pakistani security agencies that investigated Ajmal's antecedents had submitted their report to the interior ministry and the report had also been passed on to the prime minister. The decision to make the findings public had been left to the government and the prime minister.

Some reports suggested that Gilani fired Durrani because the prime minister had been deprived of the opportunity of making the findings of the investigation public.

Pakistan's political establishment was surprised when Zardari brought Durrani on board as the NSA last year despite his links to the regime of former president Pervez Musharraf.

It is believed that Durrani became close to Zardari when his slain wife, former premier Benazir Bhutto, was in talks with the US government to facilitate her return to Pakistan
from self-exile in 2007.

Durrani, a retired major general, came to prominence when Musharraf named him Pakistan's ambassador to the US in 2006. He has been nicknamed "General Shanti" for his involvement in back-channel diplomacy aimed at improving ties with India.