Mohammad Jamil After February 2008 elections, the PPP-led government decided to place the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency under the Interior Ministry, although it was already under civilian control and reported to the Prime Minister through the Army Chief. One would not know, if it was because of the Pakistani leaderships beseeching and imploring that the US and Britain wished to downgrade the ISI. However, now they have found a novel way to denigrate Pakistans premier agency. Anyhow, the summons issued by an American court to ISI Chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha, and some top members of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), could arguably be the result of ineptness of the government and its Foreign Office, since it did not seek access to David Coleman Headley, whereas India used him as a propaganda tool against Pakistan. If a case against the terrorists was in the Indian court, so was a case registered against six terrorists who are under trial in the Pakistani court. After 26/11 tragedy, Delhi demanded that the ISI Chief be sent to India. According to reports, although the Pakistani government see-med ready to concede to this demand, yet it later dithered after COAS Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani put his foot down. He is believed to have told the Pakistan government: Today, they have summoned the ISI Chief, tomorrow it will be me. Now a court in Brooklyn, New York, has issued summons to the ISI Chief and others to appear before the bench next month, in connection with the Mumbai attacks. The orders are part of a case filed by an injured US citizen and the heirs of four others, who were killed in the attack on November 26. General Pasha, his predecessor Lt Gen (retd) Nadeem Taj, Major Ali and Major Iqbal are among the Pakistani officials who have been summoned, besides Hafiz Saeed and Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi. The counsel for assassinated Jews, Rabbi Gabriel Holtzberg (a US-Israeli citizen) and his wife Rivka, said that the summons has been issued and they have to appear before the court in person or through a lawyer. I have told my clients that the case may take years before any verdict, but they are ready to take the matter to its logical end, the counsel said, adding that they wanted a proper compensation. However, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said nobody could force the ISI Chief to comply with the summons issued by the court. It seems that Indias effort to put Pakistan in a difficult situation has succeeded, and it is all because of Headleys statement. In June, Indian investigators questioned Headley for a week in the US, as part of the cooperation and partnership between Washington and Delhi in their fight against international terrorism. During the interrogation conducted by the Indian team, Headley was reported to have said that Pakistans ISI was behind the Mumbai attacks, and gave some names that kept liaison with the members of LeT. But the question is: How can one check the veracity of his statement? In my columns, I have often asked whether Islamabad had requested the US for direct access to Headley in order to confirm what India was propagating? But except one odd official statement or so, Pakistans Foreign Office did not pursue the matter to ascertain the truth due to its usual lackadaisicalness. Since seven alleged terrorists are facing the Pakistani court for their involvement in the Mumbai attacks, Pakistan could have rightfully asked the US for access to Headley to obtain incriminating material and evidence, which could help expedite the proceedings of the court. To put the record straight, it has to be mentioned that during his visits to India, Headley frequently introduced himself as a CIA agent. A report in the New York Times said that in 1998, Headley (then known as Daood Gilani) was convicted of conspiring to smuggle heroin into the US from Pakistan. Court records show that after his arrest, he provided so much information about his own involvement in drug trafficking, which spanned over a decade, and that he was awarded reduced sentence and later went to Pakistan to conduct undercover surveillance operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the NYT report said. This suggests that Headley had cut a deal with authorities in the US, who allowed him to get away with mild punishment in exchange for a promise of cooperation. Headley had pleaded guilty on March 18, 2010, in the northern district of Illinois to 12 federal terrorism charges, admitting that he participated in planning the 26/11 terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Through his attorneys, Headley had authorised the US Justice Department to disclose that he was cooperating in the ongoing investigation of both the Danish and the Indian terror plots. He remained in federal custody without bond, since he was arrested in Chicago on October 3, 2009, for the Danish conspiracy. Headley, by his own confession, had joined LeT in 2006 and received training in one of the terror camps run by the jihadi outfit. The officials had acknowledged that Headley confessed to be a terrorist scout in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, and that he was working as a DEA informant while he was training with terrorists in Pakistan. To malign Pakistan and also to create fears in the minds of Europeans to seek support to Americas misadventures, Headleys issue was given wide publicity. Reportedly, he took names of some serving Pakistan army officers to prove that our army and state were involved. However, the accused also revealed in his interrogations: The Pakistani intelligence - the ISI - is running, at least since 2003, a residential protected compound in Karachi, aimed to carry out terror attacks in India in order to undermine and weaken the Indian stability and firmness over the Kashmir issue. From his statement, it is not difficult to conclude that there was a mala fide intention to prove that Pakistan was involved in terror attacks. Had Pakistan forced the US for access to Headley, it was possible that he would have disowned his 'disclosures. There is a perception that Headley was a double agent working for the CIA and the terrorists organisations. He was a socialite; he led a life of pleasure and had many friends in Mumbai. So, the Pakistan government should take immediate steps keeping in view the legal aspects because it is a very serious matter. Moreover, it is out of the question that Pakistani officials should attend court proceedings in the US, as Pakistan is neither one of its States, nor a banana republic. Washington will try to exert maximum pressure in the light of the summons to start military operation in North Waziristan. However, Islamabad should tell it in unequivocal terms that Pakistan will not tolerate any US drone attacks in its territory. The writer is a freelance columnist.