MULTAN/ISLAMABAD: Shrugging off the allegation that he authorised unchec­ked visas for Americans, former prime minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani claimed on Friday that the real mystery surrounded the circumstances under which Osama bin Laden came to be in Pakistan.

“Husain Haqqani’s statement ... is being highlighted to divert attention from the real issues. It is possibly being done to divert attention from the Panama [Pap­ers] case,” he speculated.

The visa controversy intensified after media reports surfaced that Mr Gillani had issued a letter to the Foreign Office in 2010 ordering that visas be issued to US officials at the request of the Obama administration.

Real mystery is how the Al Qaeda leader ended up in Pakistan: Gillani

Mr Gillani claimed that not a single member of the US military had travelled on a visa to participate in the Abbotabad operation.

He added: “Now, a letter from my tenure as prime minister has been brought out and I am not sure how many more letters will be dug up.”

He said that even if he had written the letter in question, it would have been after adopting all the necessary procedures and under the relevant rules of business.

“If I had to write it, I would definitely have written the letter. The purpose of writing such a letter was to speed up the visa process, which usually takes months.”

He recalled having ordered that people who had recommendations from the US State Department and whose reason for visit was very clear should be given visas. Mr Gillani said all national institutions and agencies were aware of who the visas were being issued to.

He said his letter clearly mentioned that the ambassador could issue visas as per the law’s requirement, which did not mean that employees of the Foreign Office and other agencies could be ignored.

Mr Gillani said Pakistan’s ambassador to the US should not have bypassed procedure, as the purpose of the letter was to ensure the issuance of visas in time.

“My letter was not a classified document. The ambassador issues visas in every embassy of the world and all visas are issued after approval from the departments concerned and security agencies,” he said.

Mr Gillani called for an inquiry into the people who had been issued visas between 2002 and 2017, and who had issued them. “Instead of inquiring from individuals, a comprehensive mechanism should be devised in this regard, which should be the same for everyone,” he said.

He added that he received a message that Mr Haqqani had said the visas had been cleared by security agencies, adding that every embassy had officials from security agencies.

Supporting the former prime minister’s call for a probe into the national visa policy since 2001, the PPP formally demanded the publication of the Abbottabad Commission report to clarify ambiguities about the presence in Pakistan of Osama bin Laden and the issuance of visas to US intelligence officials.

“A thorough inquiry into visa issuance policies and procedures across-the-board from 2001 onwards, when the global hunt for bin Laden started, is what is needed,” said PPP spokesperson Farhatullah Babar.

In an official statement, Mr Babar said there was nothing new or wrong in the 2010 letter from the Prime Minister House to the Foreign Office reported in the media on Friday. “How­ever its regurgitation at this time is politically motivated and aimed at diverting attention from the real issue.”

Trying to give the impression that the consent and approval of Pakistan’s intelligence agencies was imperative in the issuance of visas to officials from other countries, Mr Babar said embassies in important capitals of the world had representatives from the relevant government departments, including security agencies.

He said Mr Haqqani was empowered by the prime minister to issue visas, but that did not mean due process within the embassy, involving representatives from other departments, was allowed to be circumvented.

The PPP said national security interests would only be advanced by a credible, nonpartisan investigation into visa policies and procedures across the board during the aforementioned period.

“Investigations must also be made into how many Americans entered Pakistan through the Shamsi airbase in Balochistan, with or without visas, during the days of General Pervez Musharraf,” Mr Babar said.

“Such investigations cannot be made through selective leaks or public statements in the media. A starting point can be the Abbottabad Commission probing the bin Laden fiasco,” he added.

“Making the Abbottabad Commission report public will be in conformity with the narrative. Any other course will not be credible and will be seen as political witch-hunting,” the PPP spokesperson said.

Published in Dawn, March 25th, 2017