ISI had no information on any coup plans in Pakistan: Ahmed Shuja Pasha

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's powerful military did not plan a coup after the US raid in Abottabad that killed al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in May last year, former ISI chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha has said.

"If there was a threat, the ISI would have known about it," Pasha said while deposing before a judicial commission probing a mysterious memo that had sought US help to stave off a feared military takeover in Pakistan after the killing of bin Laden.

The Supreme Court formed the three-judge commission after American businessman Mansoor Ijaz made public the memo, which he claimed was drafted and delivered to the US military on the instructions of Pakistan's former ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani.

The government has denied Ijaz's claims. Though Ijaz had also claimed that the military was planning a coup after the killing of bin Laden, Pasha told the commission that he rejected the businessman's statement.

He said there was no such plan by the army after the covert US raid against bin Laden in Abbottabad.

Pasha said he agreed with Ijaz's statement regarding their meeting in London.

He told the commission that the ISI's media wing had informed him about Ijaz's article in the Financial Times in which the businessman had first referred to the memo.

The former spy chief said he consulted only the military leadership after finding out about Ijaz's article.

"I wanted to know about the author of the memo and directed a source to contact Mansoor Ijaz, who agreed to meet me and share details but outside Pakistan and the US," Pasha said.