Daily Times

LAHORE: Former premier Yousaf Raza Gilani on Friday said he had empowered former envoy to the US Husain Haqqani on the precondition that visas should be issued only to people who had been recommended by the State Department and whose purpose of visit was clearly identified. Gilani said this as a clarification to the controversy that stirred up following the revelation of a ‘classified’ document issued by the Prime Minister’s Secretariat on July 14, 2010. According to the letter, the PPP government had, at the highest official level, allowed the then ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani, to issue visas to American nationals, bypassing all security protocols in 2010. “Any embassy, especially in an important capital of the world, has representation from security agencies. The letter clearly states that the ambassador may issue visas without referring every case back to Pakistan, but not bypass the embassy’s own paraphernalia. Empowering the ambassador is empowering the entire embassy with all its due process,” he remarked during an exclusive interview with Daily Times. “The purpose clearly was to expedite the process and not bypass it,” he added.