ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan People’s Party has formally written to the United States government in protest over revelations that the National Security Agency (NSA) had been spying on the party when it was running the country.

Former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf wrote to Richard Olson, the US Ambassador in Islamabad, on behalf of the party, according to an announcement made by the PPP Media Office on Sunday.

In the letter, a copy of which was also released to the press, the PPP has urged the US to make “appropriate amends for this insensitivity towards the PPP and the people of Pakistan and refrain from its repetition”.

Raja Pervaiz Ashraf’s letter to envoy warns such acts may only increase mistrust of US

Conveying the party’s “serious disappointment”, Mr Ashraf — who is also the secretary general of the PPP — has described the spying as a “very grave, unwarranted and totally unacceptable interference” in the affairs of a political party of a sovereign country.

Mr Ashraf wrote: “This attitude of a department of the US government towards a popular Pakistani political party will only increase mistrust and suspicion already present in the people of Pakistan, towards the government of the United States.”

“The PPP is gravely disappointed over the disclosures made in recently de-classified documents that the National Security Agency had been spying on the PPP in 2010… This is against international law and violates recognised diplomatic norms,” the letter reads.

Mr Ashraf goes on to say: “The party believes that it owes no explanation to any foreign agency. It, therefore, strongly resents and deplores the overbearing attitude of the NSA in assuming a right to interfere in other countries and their political parties.”

“As secretary general of the party, I am constrained to formally lodge this protest in the hope and expectation that the US government will look into it and make appropriate amends. Furthermore, that such insensitivity will not be shown to the PPP and the people of Pakistan in future.”

The letter comes three days after party spokesperson Farhatullah Babar issued a statement demanding an apology from the US officials involved in this exercise.

“Those who have violated the norms of responsible behaviour by spying on the political institutions of a sovereign country owe (us) an apology,” Mr Babar had said.

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2014