Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's public relations officer on Saturday acknowledged that David Coleman Headley, a terror suspect detained in the US, is his half-brother but dismissed as incorrect reports that his family is related to the premier.
Public relations officer Danyal Gilani said in a statement that Indian media reports "trying to establish a relationship between Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and the family of detained US terror suspect and my half-brother, Daood Gilani alias David Coleman Headley, is "incorrect, misplaced and totally baseless".
The report is based on speculation and is intended to create "unnecessary hype", Danyal Gilani said.
He said his ancestors migrated to Pakistan from Jastarwal in India's Punjab state and Etawah in Uttar Pradesh while the premier's family has been living in Multan "for centuries" and the two families "have no relationship with each other".
Danyal Gilani also acknowledged that the Prime Minister had issued a condolence message on his father Syed Saleem Gilani's death in December last year and visited his house to offer condolences.
"This he did out of courtesy because I was working as
his PRO and also because my father was a renowned broadcaster
and a known personality of his time. At that time Daood
(Gilani) was not in Pakistan," he said.
Danyal Gilani said he had been working as the PRO to
the premier since 2005, when the post was held by Shaukat
Aziz, and did not join after the current Pakistan People's
Party-led government took over.
He also offered some details about his half-brother
Daood, saying, "His having another name or changing his name
at some stage in life has come as a surprise to me."
He said he had "very little contact" with Daood since
2002, when he began living in Islamabad after passing the
Civil Service examination.
"I last met Daood when he visited Pakistan a few days
after my father's death nearly a year ago," he added.
He said Daood was born in 1960 in Washington, where
his father was working with the Voice of America and had
married an American woman.
"Soon after Daood's birth the tenure of my father's
posting ended and the couple shifted to Pakistan. In the late
1960s my father and Daood’s mother got divorced, and according
to family elders, she went back to the US," he said.
Danyal Gilani said: "Being much younger to Daood, I
have heard that he studied at the Hassan Abdal Cadet College
for some time and in the mid-1970s shifted to America to live
with his mother. Since then, the family here only had
occasional links with him.
In fact because of his involvement with issues related
to drugs, my father wanted the rest of the family to stay away
from his influence," Danyal Gilani said.
Media reports in India had yesterday said that
indications have emerged that Headley may be distantly related
to Prime Minister Gilani.
American authorities arrested Headley in Chicago
on charges of planning terrorist attacks in India and Denmark.
He has also been accused of having close links with
the banned Lashker-e-Taiba, which the Pakistan government has
acknowledged was behind the Mumbai attacks.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, November 29, 2009, 11:29