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Bugging of Pakistan Mission

THE Sunday Times of the UK has published in its recent edition a story of bugging of the Pakistan high commission's communication links in London by British secret service MI5 last year.

According to the report, the MI5 infiltrated into the high commission, stole codes and schemed to plant listening devices, besides stealing classified documents during its renovations.

In October 1909, the British Committee of Imperial Defence recommended establishing a secret service agency in view of the danger to British naval ports from German espionage. Capt Vernon Kell of the South Staffordshire Regiment and Capt Mansfield Cumming of the Royal Navy jointly established the Secret Service Bureau.

To meet an additional requirement from the admiralty for information about Germany's new navy, Capt Kell and Capt Cumming decided to divide their work. Thereafter, 'K' was responsible for counter-espionage within the British Isles (MI5) while 'C' was responsible for gathering intelligence overseas (MI6).

The British secret service is responsible for security intelligence work against covertly organized threats to the British nation. These include terrorism, espionage, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and supporting the police and other law-enforcement agencies against serious crime. In addition, the MI5 provides security advice to a range of organizations to help reduce vulnerability to threats from individuals, groups or countries hostile to UK interests.

Pakistan and Britain have been enjoying normal diplomatic and trade relations since our independence and have always explored possibilities for enhancing bilateral relations between the two countries. Our government is extending all possible support to British nationals who are staying in Pakistan, and have always helped British companies which are operating in Pakistan.

The Pakistan high commission in London has never acted as a hostile country's diplomatic mission, so there was no need for the British government to "keep an eye" on the Pakistan mission, which was bugged to monitor its activities in violation of the Vienna Convention. It is unfortunate that the MI5 acted against our diplomatic mission as a hostile secret service agency.

The government in Islamabad should ask the British government as to why it authorized its secret agency to bug the Pakistan high commission while Pakistan has been fully supporting the US in its "war against terror" since the Sept 11 terrorist attacks.

Our government should advise its diplomatic missions operating in the UK to check the buildings, as the bugging by the MI5 has created an environment of mistrust between the two countries.

The British government should submit a report at the earliest to our government and must ensure that such an act is not committed in any of the Pakistan diplomatic missions in the UK by the MI5 or any other British intelligence agency in future.

Syed A. Mateen
Karachi

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