Poreg view: The Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan army is in the news again because of its political wing, which, officially, however, doesn’t exit. It has come to lime light because one of its former Asad Durani has admitted that funds were distributed by the agency to manipulate the out come of the 1990 elections against the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). The case has since acquired a Gate suffix and became the Mehrangate because the money in question came from the Mehran Bank. Chief Justice of Pakistan, Ifthikar Muhammad Chaudhry is heading the bench constituted to hear the case and that is a guarantee that long forgotten skeletons would tumble out of the ISI closet.
According to Asad Munir, a retired brigadier, who has had a long stint in the intelligence service, political wing of ISI was not the creation of charismatic Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1975, as generally believed. ‘There is evidence that intelligence agencies had been involved in politics since the 1950s. Bhutto’s contribution was giving the political cell administrative sanctity and make its reports the basis for trying 50 Baloch and Pakhtun politicians on the charge of treason.
The very same ISI was used against ZA Bhutto first and later on against his daughter, Benazir Bhutto. It is also a fact that Benazir as prime minister made the ISI the chosen instrument to create the Mujahideen fighters who, in later years became the Taliban of various hues. Interestingly, this mission entrusted to ISI was against the recommendations of the Zulfikar Commission she herself had set up in 1989 to review the working of ISI.
Two features of ISI have always remained an enigma. One why the ISI chiefs rarely figured in the race to head the Pakistan army. Two how an organisation which is supposed to remain in the shadows has come to be talked about so openly. There is a another,much bigger question which generates much heat.
If it is agreed Pakistan army is a disciplined force despite the injection of Islamophobia right from the Zia days, can the ISI or a section of the ISI be called a rogue outfit which goes by its own agenda. It may be fashionable to say sections of ISI particularly below the Major level are unpredictable pro-jihadi elements. But this perception doesn’t gel with the reality that ISI is fully under the Pakistan army and it is manned by Pakistan army officers on deputation.
So, the conclusion that demands attention is that both the political executive and military leadership is very much on board with whatever the ISI does but find it convenient to remain in the denial mode.
There is another aspect to the issue and it is, as pointed out by noted Pakistani journalist, Ejaz Haider in The Express Tribune (Mar 18) the military in Pakistan has repeatedly flouted the institutional framework. It is not at all apolitical since it has been engaged in making and breaking of governments as the Mehran Bank scandal shows. Because it is not apolitical and because it has no accountability that comes with responsibility in a democratic milieu, the Pakistan army has arrogated to itself the larger than life size role that is generally the exclusive preserve of elected law makers in any country. It has become a state within a state. As the extended arm of the army, the ISI has acquired the same profile.
The military in Pakistan has a tendency to lock away the skeletons of the past. The Mehran Gate may firmly put the focus on the past and lead to rewriting the rules of the game.
– m ramarao
