Lt. Gen. Asad Durrani: We should not underestimate the Research and Analysis Wing (R.A.W.)

Описание: Lt. Gen. Asad Durrani, a former head the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Military Intelligence (MI). Known as a thinking general, he says that Pakistan's elite is responsible for all its ills. They scuttle everything that is aimed at benefitting the people. Without affecting defense potential, the defense spending can be reduced by controlling wasteful expenditure. Our biggest deficiency is intellectual freedom. We were never an ally of the United States.

He also said that at the time of retirement senior Pakistani military officers are better off than their Western counterparts. In this regard he give the example of General David Richards, the professional head of the British armed forces, who told him that he had to work hard to earn his living after retirement.

General Durrani was born on February 7, 1941, in Rawalpindi into a Durrani Pashtun family. From 1957 to 1959, he attended the Government College, Lahore, where he did his degree in bachelor of science. He joined the Pakistan Army in 1959, and subsequently joined the Pakistan Military Academy, Kakul. In 1960, he was commissioned as second lieutenant in the army as a gunner officer. As a captain he participated in the Indo-Pakistani war of 1965, where he commanded his company. In 1968, he was promoted to major. He also took part in the 1971 war against India.

He has served in key posts, including an instructorship at the officers' academy and later at the Command and Staff College, Quetta, as Director General of Military Intelligence from 1988 to 1989; Director General of the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) from 1990 to 1991, Inspector General Training and Evaluation at GHQ and commandant at the National Defense College.

He is a graduate from the General Staff Academy, Germany. He has also been Pakistan's military attaché to Germany from 1980 to 1984. After retiring from the army, he was Pakistan's ambassador to Germany (1994–97) and Saudi Arabia (2000–2002).

In 1994, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif accused Durrani and Mirza Aslam Beg of wanting to sell "heroin to pay for the country's covert military operations in early 1991."

In 2008, Durrani acknowledged "distributing money to the alliance against Benazir Bhutto" in the 1993 Pakistani general election.

In 2015, he told the press it was “probable” the Pakistani government knew Usama bin Laden’s location and “the idea was that at the right time, his location would be revealed. And the right time would have been when you can get the necessary quid pro quo.”

In 2018, he co-authored The Spy Chronicles: RAW, ISI and the Illusion of Peace with A. S. Dulat, former head of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). He was supposed to attend the book release with Dulat in India, but the Indian government denied him a visa. Subsequently, it was reported that he received a summons to appear before General Headquarters over the book and was placed on the exit control list.

Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif demanded that the National Security Committee (NSC) should discuss the book. However, in October 2018, Asad Durrani's lawyer said they had not received any notice of an inquiry and sought the removal of Asad Durrani's name from the Exit Control List.

Shazar Shafat, a security analyst, suggests two reasons in South Asian Voices (hosted by The Stimson Center) as to why Asad Durrani may be facing the backlash. The first is related to Durrani's comments on Akhand Bharat in the book and the second is in relation to comments on Kulbhushan Jadhav. However, a report by CNN found that the book (as well as a pirated PDF version) was freely available in Pakistan and that the Pakistani governments "overreaction", according to Hassan Askari Rizvi and other defense analysts, may be because Durrani did not get prior permissions for such a book.

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Shakil Chaudhary attneded Government College, Lahore, Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad and the London School of Economics. He has worked for several English-language newspapers. He has written a critically acclaimed bilingual book, Handbook of Functional English (Ferozsons), to help those who wish to improve their English skills.

Prof. Tariq Rahman, one of the finest linguistic scholars in South Asia, has praised it in these words: "This book is an excellent guide for the South Asian user of the English language."

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