Islamabad, Nov. 28: Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the ISI chief who will help investigate the Mumbai terror attacks, is known to be a “straight-forward” officer who settles for nothing short of perfection.

Pakistan’s army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kiyani had appointed Pasha to helm the ISI in September after promoting him to the rank of lieutenant general.

Before that, he was serving as the director-general, military operations.

Pasha, who his colleagues describe as one of the most clear-headed officers in the intelligence service, had supervised the anti-terror operation in the restive tribal areas of the North West Frontier Province.

“The decision to send General Pasha to India is strictly based on building confidence and telling New Delhi that Pakistan is ready to extend whatever assistance possible in the probe,” a senior official said.

Pasha will be in Mumbai in response to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s call for increased intelligence sharing to evolve a joint strategy against terrorism.

The Pakistani leadership, however, cautioned India against levelling “accusations” at the country.

“There should be no blame game,” Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said in Lahore.

He said the two countries should instead focus on real issues like poverty, hunger and diseases. “I am saying it again that we have nothing to do with the attacks in Mumbai.”

President Asif Ali Zardari echoed Gilani when he spoke to Singh on the phone. “Non-state actors want to force upon the governments their own agenda but they must not be allowed to succeed and we should not fall into the trap of militants,” he said.

The Pakistani media were more belligerent in their reaction to India’s “finger pointing”.

“The accusations come not only from within India but from international media channels too…. The awful reality of our time is that Pakistan has become the world’s centre of terrorism,” said The News International.

The Daily Times argued that Pakistan, too, was a victim of terror. “There is no doubt that Pakistan is under attack from the same kind of mujahideen,” it said.