It was Zardari’s decision to control ISI

[LRE]

It was Zardari’s decision to control ISI



Tuesday, July 29, 2008
By Tariq Butt

ISLAMABAD: The three influential government leaders — Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, PPP Co-chairman Asif Zardari and Adviser to the PM on Interior Rehman Malik — took the decision to place the premier spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, under the interior ministry, reliable sources said.

“The entire cabinet was unaware of the major decision,” a senior political source close to the cabinet told The News. He rather said it was Zardari, who decided to place the ISI under complete civilian control, “and Gilani and Malik just tried its implementation, having the official capacities.”

Since the cabinet was not in the loop, the question of any discussion on the issue even among a select group of ministers did not arise, the source said. The PPP leaders and ministers admit that the lack of consultations in which all the pros and cons of the decision would have been reviewed led to the colossal loss of face and faux pas.

“We will take a long time to overcome the myriad of misunderstandings and misgivings that have crept up between the powerful players,” one of them said. Other sources say that the abortive attempt to put the ISI under the interior ministry, that created a storm in Rawalpindi, was meant to actually give its control to Zardari “as Rehman Malik is his most trusted person in the government.”

Not only the senior PPP leaders and the entire cabinet were kept in the dark, no partner of the ruling coalition was taken on board in this decision. The PML-N has a sullen face and has no contact with the PPP for quite some time due to the stalemate over the issue of the restoration of the deposed judges. The Awami National Party and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam were also not consulted in this connection.

While the PPP’s recent attempt to take control of the spy agency has boomeranged, its first bid made under the then prime minister Benazir Bhutto in 1989 was carried through to the extent that she was successful to appoint a retired officer, once close to her father, Lt-Gen Shamsur Rehman Kallue as the ISI chief.

Successive elected rulers of Pakistan have been concertedly struggling to take charge of the elite agency. Such bids always created bad blood between the civilian governments and the military establishment.

The latest attempt reflected the mindset and approach of the civilian rulers to have the ISI on their side on the premise that they have been mandated to make and implement key domestic and foreign policies of the state and that the agency can do wonders in the realisation of their political agenda. Benazir Bhutto, just three months after assuming the office of the prime minister, had shown the door to the then ISI chief Lt-Gen Hameed Gul and appointed the first-ever retired military officer Gen Kallue in his place.

In his first tenure, Nawaz Sharif appointed Islamist Lt-Gen Khawaja Javed Nasir as the ISI chief. He, however, was unable to save or prolong the life of Nawaz government. Instead, the appointment had estranged the Army.

In his second tenure, Nawaz nominated Lt-Gen Ziauddin Butt as the director-general of the spy agency. He also failed to delay or prevent his ouster by Pervez Musharraf. The present ISI chief Lt-Gen Nadeem Taj was appointed to this position by President Musharraf. He had earlier served as the military secretary to the president for years.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=126894