Islamabad: 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.
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. (ANI)
