ISI chief to get his second extension

Pakistan's ISI chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha is set to get an extension in service, the country's Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar confirmed today.

Updated on: Mar 12, 2011, 18:38:06 IST

PTI | By HT Correspondent, Islamabad

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Pakistan's ISI chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha is set to get an extension in service, the country's Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar confirmed today.

Pasha, a close confidant of Army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, is to retire next week. Asked by reporters if Pasha is being given an extension, Mukhtar, who is also a senior leader of the ruling Pakistan People's Party, said: "Yes, it is being given."

But the minister did not spell out the duration of the extension. Media reports had said that Pasha is likely to get a two-year extension tenure. Responding to a query on whether Pasha would remain in service till 2013, Mukhtar said, "He is being given an extension according to the requirement."

This would be a second extention for the ISI chief who was earlier given a year-long extended tenure. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani last year announced an unprecedented three-year extension for Kayani.

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