The new ISI chief

And the affairs of the secret organisation

Whatever good the ISI has done for the country, and presumably it is a lot, is known only to the secretive organisation. Some of its semi-covert activities have however brought its image down in the public eye. There are few countries where a national security agency has invited so much criticism from politicians, academics and the media. It remains to be seen if the newly appointed ISI chief adds to the old grievances or takes measures to improve the ISI’s image.

In 1990’s the ISI created the IJI, a new political alliance, to contain the influence of the PPP. It subsequently distributed money among politicians to help the IJI win the elections. Under Musharraf the Agency’s political cell undertook the task of political engineering to hammer together a majority badly needed to enable the King’s Party to rule. Under the PPP tenure beginning 2008, the ISI was found to have been napping while OBL moved freely from town to town to finally settle down in the cantonment city of Abbottabad. Subsequently the ISI chief personally undertook foreign tour to collect evidence for the so called “Memogate”. The issue was totally forgotten once the PPP was out of power. Under Gen Zahirul Islam there has been no love lost between the PML-N government and the ISI. There were also complaints of attempts by the Agency to control the media.

The ISI is officially supposed to be under the Prime Minister. Who it really reports to however is a matter of opinion. There are some who maintain that it reports to the COAS while others hold that it has acquired an autonomy from its mother organisation and acts as a state within a state. One expects the ISI to work like security agencies in other democratic countries. For this it will have to accept the authority of the civilian government, concentrate on foiling the plans of the enemy agencies and scrupulously avoid taking part in politics.