Islamabad [Pakistan]: Nusrat Mirza, a Pakistani columnist who has visited India many times during the Congress’ rule, has boasted on camera that he used to pass on information collected during his visits to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
During a virtual interview with journalist and political analyst Shakil Chaudhary, Mirza said that he had received various privileges from the foreign affairs department of Pakistan during his visits to India. He shared that “usually when you apply for a visa to India, they only allow you to visit three places. However, at that time, Khurshid Kasuri (Pakistani politician and writer who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan between November 2002 till November 2007) was the foreign minister who helped me to get a visa for seven cities.”
He claimed that he had visited India on several occasions. “I was invited to India at the time of Vice Presidentship of Mohammad Hamid Ansari.” Ansari is an Indian politician and retired diplomat who was the 12th vice president of India from 2007 to 2017.
“I have visited India five times. I have visited Delhi, Banglore, Chennai, Patna and Kolkata as well. In 2011, I also met with the Milli Gazette’s publisher Zafarul Islam Khan.” Zafarul-Islam Khan is a former Chairman of the Delhi Minorities Commission and Founder-Editor of the Milli Gazette, Indian Muslims’ leading news source.
In 2020, Zafarul Islam Khan had indulged in blatant provocation against Hindus of the country after he threatened with an ‘avalanche’ by the Muslims of the country. In a Facebook post, he had thanked Kuwait for “standing with the Indian Muslims” and attacked Hindus by referring to them as “Hindutva bigots”. In his post, Khan had asserted that Indian Muslims enjoy huge goodwill in the Arab and Muslim world for their services over centuries to Islamic causes. His post came amidst reports that Kuwait had expressed concern regarding the alleged atrocities against Muslims in the country amidst coronavirus outbreak.
Replying to a question about Pakistan lagging behind on Urdu intellectuals and strategists, Mirza responded in an affirmative however he also registered his disappointment with the leadership in the Pakistan Army and said that they are not considerate of the situation and usually ignore the work of experts.
“Do you know what the problem in Pakistan is? When a new chief comes, he wipes out the work done by the previous chief and starts with a clean slate. Khurshid asked me to hand over the information I had brought to Kayani (General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Pakistan’s former Army Chief). I said I would not hand over the information to him, but if you want, I am giving you the information. He handed it over to Kayani,” he said.
“Later they called me and asked if I could get more information like this. I asked them to work on the information I provided. They have a research wing. They have information. They know about the weaknesses in the leadership in India. But they do not use it,” he added.
Continuing Pakistan’s ‘lackadaisical’ approach to handling the intelligence received by him from India, he said, “since FATF came, Pakistan has not done any activity. It has its hands tied up.” It is worth noting that Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) terror finance watchlist has been keeping a close eye on Pakistan for not fulfilling the parameters to counter terrorism in the country.
He continued the interview by bragging about how he “fully understands” India and its outlook. He said that though he handed down the information to the Pakistani leadership however no one seemed to pay any attention to it due to leadership issues.
“Though I agree I am not an expert, I understand their (India’s) culture. I know about their weaknesses. But the problem is the experience I gathered about India is not being used due to lack of good leadership in Pakistan,” he said.
“I think I understand how India functions. I have studied the circumstances in which Indian Muslims live. I am friends with all the editors of Urdu papers in India. Many news channel owners are good friends. Whenever I have visited India, I have given several interviews.”
“I know where separatist movements are happening. But no one wants to exploit the information. The separatist movements are happening in all regions of India. There is no doubt about that. I used to say there were 26 movements ongoing, but someone said now there are 67 such movements.”
Mirza has also worked as an advisor to the Chief Minister of Sindh. Speaking about former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan he said that the former premier could not even establish himself as a leader within his own party. Pakistan has lost its credibility on the world stage.
During his interview, Mirza noted that China was increasingly becoming frustrated with Imran Khan over the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects. (With inputs from ANI)
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