Pakistan's civilian government issued visas to more than 400 Americans without army security clearances starting in early 2010, possibly enabling the CIA to boost its presence, in a move that angered the country's powerful military.
A spokeswoman for President Asif Ali Zardari declined to comment on details of the visa decision, saying only that security clearance was not always needed from the army.
Pakistani diplomatic missions in Washington, the United Arab Emirates and London issued the visas after the government came under intense U.S. pressure, officials said.
The granting of the visas has also fueled tension between the military and the unstable nuclear-armed country's civilian leaders, whose relations are uneasy at the best of times.
"At the end of 2009, a special presidential order was issued to give 7,000 visas and the same order was passed through the prime minister's office to Mr. Haqqani," a senior Pakistani security official told Reuters, referring to Pakistan's ambassador in the United States, Husain Haqqani.
"On the basis of these orders, the visas which were valid for three to six months were issued without the scrutiny or routine security clearance of the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence)."
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/05/12/us-pakistan-usa-visas-idUKTRE74B74N20110512
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