Pak to 'strongly contest' lawsuit against ISI boss

The Pakistan government on Thursday said it will "strongly contest" the lawsuit filed in a United States court against the serving and former heads of the powerful spy agency Inter Services Intelligence by relatives of two Jewish victims of the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

"The government of Pakistan has taken a firm decision to strongly contest the suit filed against the Inter-Services Intelligence its present and past directors general," foreign office spokesman Abdul Basit said.

The government and the Pakistan embassy in Washington "shall defend the legal suit on behalf of the ISI and its directors general fully and properly," he said in a statement.

Basit noted that Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had categorically stated in the National Assembly or lower house of parliament that the government does "not believe the ISI, as an agency of the government of Pakistan, or its present and former officials could be subjected to civil litigation in the courts of the US".

Gilani had also made it clear that the government intends to take "appropriate steps to obtain dismissal of this action", Basit said.

The court in Brooklyn has summoned current ISI chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha and his predecessor Nadeem Taj and Lashker-e-Tayiba leaders, including Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, to appear before it in connection with the suit filed by relatives of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife, who were among the 166 people killed during the Mumbai attacks.