An editorial published in American newspaper New York Times said on Friday that President Asif Ali Zardari needed to insist on the retirement of Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and the appointment of a more credible successor as a first move to press the security services to change.
The editorial said the United States needed to use its influence to hasten Pasha’s departure and should tell Pakistan’s security leadership that if Washington identified anyone in the ISI or the army as abetting terrorists, those individuals would face sanctions such as travel bans.
The editorial said the ISI “has become inimical to Pakistani and American interests”. It said President Zardari and his government had been a disappointment, largely letting the military go its own way, but now needed to find the courage to assert civilian control over security services that had too much power and were running amok. After the journalist Saleem Shahzad was murdered in May, it said, suspicion fell on the ISI since Shahzad reported aggressively on the infiltration of militants into Pakistan’s military and had received repeated threats from the ISI. Other journalists said they, too, had been threatened and even tortured by security forces, said the editorial.
The editorial quoted American officials as saying new intelligence indicated that senior ISI officials had ordered the attack on Shahzad to silence him. “The murder will make journalists and other critics of the regime even more reluctant to expose politically sensitive news. The ISI is also proving to be an increasingly dangerous counterterrorism partner for the United States,” said the editorial. The editorial said it was unclear how high up the culpability for Shahzad’s murder went or whether there were any officials left in the ISI or the army who had the power and desire to reform the spy agency.
Pasha must go, says NYT
