ISI and its Activities

This article is just an effort to give you an insight of the nefarious activities that ISI
(Inter-Services Intelligence) performs in the name of guarding national security of
Pakistan.

ISI was established in order to guard Pakistan’s security from external threats and
we have no objection what so ever if ISI performs just this task. But here the situation is
opposite because ISI has severely failed in safe guarding Pakistan from external threats
and instead of improving its capabilities it has involved itself in internal politics of
Pakistan. Although ISI has got some successes against the hostile India but overall its
performance on external front is poor. Whereas its performance in manipulating elections,
harassing politicians and journalists and pressurizing judiciary in Pakistan is
exceptionally well and this is highly condemnable.

Failures of ISI:
• The 1965 war in Kashmir provoked a major crisis in intelligence. When the war
started, there was a complete collapse of the operations of all the intelligence
agencies, which had been largely devoted to domestic investigative work such as
tapping telephone conversations and chasing political suspects. The ISI, after the
commencement of the 1965 Indo-Pakistan war, was apparently unable to locate an
Indian armored division due to its preoccupation with political affairs.

• ISI became even more deeply involved in domestic politics under General Yahya
Khan, notably in East Pakistan, where operations were mounted to ensure that no
political party should get an overall majority in the general election and attempts
were made to infiltrate the inner circles of the Awami League. The operation was
a complete disaster as it led to the 1971 Pakistan civil war which saw East
Pakistan become an independent nation of Bangladesh.

• In 1981, a Libyian Security company called Al Murtaza Associates sends

recruiters to Pakistan to entice former soldiers and servicemen for high paying
security jobs in Libya. In reality, Libya was recruiting mercenaries to fight with
Chad and Egypt as it had border disputes with both nations. Only later did the ISI
become aware of the plot and the whole scheme was stopped, but nearly 2,700
Pakistanis had already left for those jobs.[4]

• The PAF Field Intelligence Unit at their base in Karachi in July 1980 captured an
Indian agent. He was interrogated and revealed that a large network of Indian
spies is functioning in Karachi. These spies in addition to espionage have also
assassinated a few armed personnel. He also said the leader of the spy ring is
being headed by Food and Beverages Manager, Intercontinental Hotel, Karachi
and a number of serving Air Force officers and ratings were on his payroll. The
ISI decided to survey the manager and see who was he in contacts with but the
 President of Pakistan superseded and wanted the manager and anyone else
involved in the case arrested. It was later proven that the manager was completely
innocent.[4]

• ISI failed to perform a proper background check on the British Company which
supplied the Pakistan Army with its Arctic-weather gear. When Pakistan
attempted to secure the top of the Siachen Glacier in 1984, it placed a large order
for Arctic-weather gear with that company but that company also supplied the
Indian Army with its gear. Indians were easily alerted to the large Pakistani
purchase and deduced that this large purchase could be used to equip troops to
capture the glacier. India then mounted an operation (Operation Meghdoot) and
secured the top of the glacier before Pakistan.

• ISI failed to calculate the International reaction to the Kargil operation in summer
of 1999. Subsequent heavy pressure by foreign countries such as USA forced the
Pakistani backed forces to withdraw from Kargil.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Role in Afghan War:

The Afghan war of the 1980s saw the enhancement of the covert action
capabilities of the ISI by the CIA. A number of officers from the ISI's Covert Action
Division received training in the US and many covert action experts of the CIA were
attached to the ISI to guide it in its operations against the Soviet troops by using the
Afghan Mujahideen, Islamic fundamentalists of Pakistan and Arab volunteers. Osama
bin Laden, Mir Aimal Kansi, who assassinated two CIA officers outside their office in
Langley, US, in 1993, Ramzi Yousef and his accomplices involved in the New York
World Trade Centre explosion in February, 1993, the leaders of the Muslim separatist
movement in the southern Philippines and even many of the narcotics smugglers of
Pakistan were the products of the ISI-CIA collaboration in Afghanistan.

A State within a State:

Critics of the ISI say that it has become a state within a state, answerable neither
to the leadership of the army, nor to the President or the Prime Minister. The result is
there has been no real supervision of the ISI, and corruption, narcotics, and big money
has all come into play, further complicating the political scenario.

The ISI has been deeply involved in domestic politics and, has kept track of the
incumbent regime's opponents. In their efforts to maintain law and order in Pakistan and
weaken nationalist and religious elements and political parties disliked by the army, the
ISI and the army followed a policy of divide and rule. After the success of the Islamic
Revolution in Iran in 1979, to keep the Shias of Pakistan under control, the ISI
encouraged the formation of ant-Shia Sunni extremist organisations such as the Sipah
Sahaba . When the Shias of Gilgit rose in revolt in 1988, Musharraf used bin Laden and
his tribal hordes from the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and the Federally-
Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) to suppress them brutally.

Allegations on ISI:
ISI's Internal Political Division has been accused by various members of the
Pakistan People's Party in assassinating Shah Nawaz Bhutto, one of the two brothers of
Benazir Bhutto, through poisoning in the French Riviera in the middle of 1985 in an
attempt to intimidate her into not returning to Pakistan for directing the movement
against Zia's Military government, but no proof has been found implicating the ISI.

The ISI was also involved in a massive corruption scandal dubbed "Mehrangate,"
in which top ISI and Army brass were given large sums of money by Yunus Habib (the
owner of Mehran Bank) to deposit ISI’s foreign exchange reserves in Mehran Bank. This
was against government policy, as such banking which involves government institutions
can only be done through state-owned financial institutions and not private banks. When
the new director of the ISI was appointed and then proceeded to withdraw the money
from Mehran Bank and back into state-owned financial institutions, the money had been
used up in financing Habib's “extra-curricular” activities. On April 20, 1994, Habib was
arrested and the scandal became public.

Gifts of ISI (MQM & Jamaat-e-Islaami):

ISI has created various organizations in the country so that they can guard the
benefit of ISI and give legitimacy to all its ill doings. Most important of these are Jamaat-
e-Islaami and MQM. Jamaat-e-Islaami was never a political force in Pakistan but it was
supported out of the way by General Zia-ul-Haque and ISI just for the sake of their rule.
They promoted Jamaat-e-Islaami just to implement their Islamization policy whereas
people of Pakistan are as Islamic as they were before Zia-ul-Haq’s regime. But Jamaat-e-
Islaami has become a force in all parts of country and they are even polluting the
educational institutes using their terrorist organization Islaami Jamiat Talba.

MQM was created to counter Pakistan People’s Party in Sindh after Shaheed
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was hanged by Zia-ul-Haq and his American masters. But MQM in
the name of Mohajirs has hijacked the beautiful city of Karachi and they are constantly
promoting terrorism in Karachi by murdering people for the last 20 years. Plus they are
strong supporters of India and their leader Altaf Hussain (the terrorist) has publicly called
the division of India the biggest blunder of 20th Century. What can you expect from a
party who is against the creation of Pakistan.

Conclusion:
 The above discussion gives an overview of the overall role of ISI in internal
politics of Pakistan and the problems that are being faced today due to this involvement
of ISI in civilian matters.We must ask a question here:
Who will provide definition of national security to rule out the involvement of
the ISI in domestic politics which is seen as the biggest threat to the security and
solidarity of Pakistan?

****** Just think over it and share your ideas. ******

Afnan.