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Benazir demands Parliament session to discuss ISI's drug trade

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD MARCH 22. The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) led by the former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, has expressed grave concern over the reported involvement of the Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) in drug trade and demanded an immediate convening of Parliament to debate the issue.

The party said here today that it was gravely concerned that at a Senate briefing on Thursday a former U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan claimed that over the last six years ISI had a "substantial" involvement in drug trade.

According to reports from Washington in reply to pointed questions by Rep Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican from California, former U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan, has acknowledged that over the last six years the agency's involvement in drug trade was "substantial".

Nancy Chamberlin, who was Washington's Ambassador in Pakistan, till last year and was now a senior official with the USAID, tried to evade the question with help from a senior colleague, Christina Rocca, but finally gave in.

``How would you characterise ISI's involvement in the opium business on the Afghan-Pakistan border over the last six years,'' Rep Dana Rohrabacher asked, repeating his question four times until Ms. Chamberlin said it was "substantial''.

``The people of Pakistan know too well the dirty works the intelligence agencies have been doing in the past. These have ranged from distributing slush funds and public moneys stolen from banks to make and unmake political alliances as was done in 1988 to kidnapping and torturing of political opponents and shaving off their hair and moustache as was done most shamelessly to Rana Sanaullah, Deputy Opposition Leader in the Punjab Assembly, as recently as last week,'' PPP said.

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