ISI's role in Pakistan: Dangerous games

War on Terror

22 Aug 2008, NewAgeIslam.Com

ISI's role in Pakistan: Dangerous games

By Kuldip Nayar   It doesn't matter to ISI that good relations between India and Pak are vital to combat militants in the subcontinent.   Not many have any doubt about the 'sovereignty' of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI). The then Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf did not have to underline it through his remark that it should not be destabilised. Those familiar with governance in Pakistan know that the force is a parallel authority which has its own agenda and which has its own ways to put it into operation.   People inside and outside Pakistan were happy when there was a notification last month that the ISI would be under the Ministry of Interior. Asif Ali Zardari, co-chairman of the ruling Pakistan Peoples' Party (PPP), welcomed the step and pointed out that "no one will now be able to say that this agency is not under the elected government control." But he spoke too soon. Within 24 hours, another notification was issued to say that the earlier notification had been 'misunderstood'. In other words, the military will continue to control it through an Army Maj Gen who heads it. A more detailed notification was promised. But it has not come out. Nor will it ever. It is apparent that the defence forces exerted the pressure and had another notification issued for "clarification." Director-General of the Inter Services Public Relation (ISPR) Maj-Gen Athar Abbas was blunt enough to say the defence authorities had not been taken into confidence on the issue. This proves that the military continues to rule Pakistan.   But why has Zardari, who praised the interior ministry's control, kept quiet is beyond me. He should know he cannot have any deal with the military if he wants people behind him. But most surprising was the silence of Nawaz Sharif, head of the Muslim League (N). The Charter of Democracy which he signed with the late Benazir Bhutto in London two years ago wants the Army to return to the barracks. Nawaz cannot shrug his shoulders when the military puts pressure and gets back the control of ISI. Indeed, the rub of Pakistan's problems is the failure of political parties to stand up to the army.   Pakistan has returned to democracy through an internationally-supervised polls. Political parties have not yet put their act together. Yet it does not mean that the old order where power rested with the military should continue.   Still more frightening is the statement by Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani that the probe into the bomb attack on Indian embassy in Kabul required concrete evidence. What more proof is required when America has said that the ISI gave support to the bombers to ram into the premises of the Indian embassy? Moreover, the question of probe was sorted out when Gilani declared after meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Colombo that Pakistan would make the necessary inquiry. Manmohan Singh must have passed on some information on the basis of which he (Gilani) agreed to a probe. Then why is there a demand for 'concrete evidence'? The New York Times has reported in detail: "Michael V Hayden, the CIA chief who met the prime minister at a dinner on Monday, told Mr Gilani that Pakistan will have to do something about the alleged involvement of ISI officials with the militants. Some information in the CIA charge-sheet was so damning that the Pakistanis could not deny them."   Subsequently Gilani confirmed The New York Times report that CIA deputy director Stephen R Kappes and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admn. Michael G Mullen visited Islamabad in mid-July with reports of some ISI officials' alleged links with militants. So far there is no evidence that Islamabad has taken the complaint seriously. Pakistan is trying its best to fob off the agency's responsibility in the bomb attack. Even if something concrete is proved against the ISI there is none in Pakistan to take action against the agency.   Destabilising India is on the top of the agency's agenda and it does not matter to the ISI that good relations between India and Pakistan are essential to combat the militants who were striking in the subcontinent. Its policy for years is to have Afghanistan under it on the conviction that it will give Pakistan a "strategic depth".   Islamabad has made no headway so far in this direction. For some time, it has developed the belief that if Afghanistan does not have India as its supporter Kabul would come round. ISI's anger against New Delhi stems from India's close relations with Kabul. In fact, the militancy in the region cannot go until the ISI gives up its policy on having Afghanistan in Pakistan's backyard. Most of the Taliban activity is because of that. True, the Taliban are the creation of the ISI. But they also have an ambition of their own: to carve out a state of their own from the territories under Afghanistan and Pakistan. The ISI is playing a dangerous game when it encourages the Taliban to needle Afghanistan. Only civilian control of the ISI can sort out things. Preferably, the force should be disbanded.   View Source article: http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Aug212008/editpage2008082085653.asp