Pakistani military summons former ISI chief over book he co-authored with ex-RAW chief
Lieutenant General (retired) Asad Durrani insisted that he had not violated the military’s code of conduct.
Barely days after the release of his book The Spy Chronicles: RAW, ISI and the Illusion of Peace, the former chief of Pakistan’s spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence, Lieutenant General (retired) Asad Durrani, has been summoned to the Pakistani Army’s General Headquarters. Durrani co-authored the book with former Research and Analysis Wing chief Amarjit Singh Dulat and Indian journalist Aditya Sinha.
Director General of the Inter-Services Public Relations – the Pakistan Army’s media wing – Major General Asif Ghafoor said Durrani has been summoned to the headquarters on May 28. “[Durrani] will be asked to explain his position on views attributed to him in the book,” Ghafoor said on Twitter. “Attribution [is being] taken as [a] violation of Military Code of Conduct, applicable on all serving and retired military personnel.”
Durrani said on Saturday that he will go to the general headquarters to present his case regarding the book. “I have not violated any code of conduct and I am sure Army will agree with me,” he wrote on Twitter.
The development came after former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the Pakistan People’s Party senator Raza Rabbani criticised Durrani for teaming up with Indian officials to write the book.
Earlier, Durrani had said that those criticising the book have not read it. He told The Express Tribune that the literary collaboration was simply a case of two people with experience in Indo-Pak affairs discussing their respective perspectives. “They are reaching conclusions based on distorted news items,” he told the Pakistani newspaper.
The Spy Chronicles: RAW, ISI and the Illusion of Peace is a series of discussions between the two former spy agency chiefs and journalist Aditya Sinha on a range of topics, including the Kashmir matter. Durrani has also suggested that Pakistan mishandled the case of former Indian naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, who is currently in prison in Islamabad.