Her Majestys security agency, MI6, responsible for Britains spying operations abroad, has now made headlines in Pakistan. Not that the country is altogether new to it. Pervez Musharraf has claimed in his book In the Line of Fire that Omar Saeed Sheikh, sentenced to death for killing WSJ correspondent Daniel Pearl, was originally recruited by MI6 and despatched to the Balkans to take part in jihadi activities. The last time the security agency surfaced in media was when it was reported to be interrogating Libyan defector Moussa Koussa. What baffles one, however, is a reported understanding between the ISI, CIA and MI6 about giving the British agency a greater role in eradicating terrorism from both sides of the Pak-Afghan border.
If the report is to be blieved, many are bound to ask how can any sovereign country allow a foreign secret agency to operate from its own soil, tribal areas being as much a part of Pakistan as any other area in the country? There have been widespread demands for the expulsion of American secret agents from the country in the wake of the Raymond Davis affair. Any perception of their British proxies being allowed to operate from Pakistan would be similarly resented. While secret agents frequently collect intelligence from other countries, including allies, considered vital by their governments, this is done clandestinely. Foreign secret agents are never invited officially.
Any agreement of the type reported by the media would create doubts about the efficiency of the ISI. How can an organisation claiming to be highly professional and vigilant allow a foreign secret agency to encroach upon its turf? What further perturbs one is the highly objectionable clause in the report alleging that permission has been given to MI6 to operate on both sides of the Pak-Afghan border. Afghanistan is a sovereign country and none other than the Afghan government has the right to give MI6 or any other foreign security network a role in Afghanistan.
