![[col11.gif]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf0dIyjOefyU56izUHrCeAPuphhHnJ4mjZTIs0VWZiMPJ9uUce1ZVS7pZv3vUKj2WwWcEzyk-Pvvzfpw8V5k1ms9X-Vx4kVQZUrW9hx42V9nCzjX8d6RzbE-g0GhLxQYa2aU7xeYDwKAM/s1600/col11.gif)
Read more...
Showing posts with label Kargil. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kargil. Show all posts
Wednesday, 31 December 2008
Saturday, 27 December 2008
Was the Mumbai attack the Kargil 2? Does the ISI want to topple the the democratic government of President Zardari? How can the UN help Pakistan?
Was the Mumbai attack the Kargil 2? Does ISI want to topple the democratic government of President Zardari in Pakistan? How can the UN help Pakistan?
An interesting conversation between some educated Pakistanis
pejamistri Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
It seems to me that ISI has asked all the “beardo brigade” members to focus on …..
There are several reasons for this. Initially it started with the bashing of political parties after the removal of the mad dictator, however after the Mumbai attacks, ISI decided exploit the misplaced/misguided patriotism of “educated” youth of Pakistan hence they went for an all out propaganda.
Pejamistri says:
December 24th, 2008 at 11:36 am
Earlier I mentioned that for the people of India and United States, the best thing is to support people of Pakistan. However true to their past governments of both countries (specially Indians are not interested in it) of course they believe that they can survive several more 9/11s, Mumbai attacks.
While the military of Pakistan is generating a war hysteria in Pakistan in an attempt to ride on the sentiments of false patriotism and win the “hearts” of people of Pakistan. However Indians are hitting the people of Pakistan where it hits the most i.e. Financially and Diplomatically.
Today Indians are trying to prevail over Sri Lankan government to cancel the upcoming Cricket tour of Pakistan. BTW Sri Lankan Army and Pakistan Military have been “comrades in arms” for a very long time , in fact mad dictator was in Sri Lankan Military headquarters when Nawaz Sharif sacked him , and their are news that Sri Lankan army helped him with intelligence during his visit their against the wishes of government of Pakistan.
Moreover India is going to make a case of economic sanctions against Pakistan early next year which may then cause stoppage of IMF’s installment next year.
Is it a coincidence that just after 1988 , Americans approved/invoked Pressler amendment and United Nations were worried about the Nuclear arms in the decade of 90’s , and now just after the mad dictator has gone and Pakistan is under civilian rule we find the US and Indians again trying to put Pakistan in economic jail.
That is why I ask my friends in US, why were they surprised about 9/11 when their own government asked for it , and how could they be surprised about “Manhattan dirty bombing” when their government is again asking for it. For eight years US, Indians, and some Europeans were supporting the mad dictator’s regime with 70 billion dollars , despite 7/7 (British 9/11 as they call it) they kept giving money to directly to Pakistan army and indirectly to extremists.
And now when there is a civilian government in Pakistan , they are making hue and cry about the 9/11 of a country which is just trying to be part of “civilized nations”, whose in civilized record is suspicious.
Remember Pakistan army wants war euphoria , they want to use Mumbai attacks to gain public sympathy and improve their reputation. They may even think of small Kargil like battle which could as usual be disaster, on the other hand Indians it seems are not interested in war instead they want economic sanctions against Pakistan. Whereas Americans are busy in transition.
pejamistri Says:
December 24th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
@GoTK
Just like you I am also waiting for Zardari to do one single thing right. It’s been a year and he could not get UN team for BB’s murder investigation.
There is a difference however between my disappointment and yours and that is if Zardari fails , I trust NS , if he fails I trust IK and if he fails too then I trus Zardari (if he is still there in Pakistan ) , and if he is not there I start trusting NS again , and if in the meanwhile GoTK becomes a popular politician I will start trusting him…. all the while democratic system is there , politician are fighting , defeating each other and I am voting….
Ghost Of TK says:
December 24th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
@peja: They may even think of small Kargil like battle which could as usual be disaster,
Out of the various possiblities, do you think Mumbai may have been Kargil_2 which the world has averted? ie; India attack pakistan, military gets to not fight its choochaa’s ??
I still am not sure. Though I am flip-flopping between fals-flag conspiracy theories (india/mossad did it using beardos) and Kargil-II (arms length ISI assets did it using .. you guessed it.. the beardo’s)
The reason I’m leaning towards a “plausibly deniable” inovlvement of the ISI networks is because Hamid Gul was really a cheery little fvcker right after the attacks and he came on one show and claimed he was lifting weights alredy to get ready for war and that 25 lakh retired fauji’s were ready to fight (the 2.5 million Bat-men … can you imagine the wings flapping?)
He has also been making statements last year that 2009 will be the “year of the revolution”. I’m sure JI and other PiThoo’s will like nothing better than “another revolution in the interest of the nation”
The level of activity in favor of “mard-e mujahid Hamid Gul” after such moronic interview was very interesting. On most news forums new ID’s started appearing with statements like “Hamid Gul is right! He is true mujahid…” etc. again.. a feeble attempt on the part of the agencies to give credence to his batshit crazy ideas …
so… was it a false flag by mossad?
or a self-directed false flag by Gul and company with the beardo’s given the kind of training that they would leave a trail of evidence that would lead to pakistan, cause a conflagaration, army moves out of swat/FATA to eastern border, emergency is declared and Kayani eventually takes over.
Also interesting was the near instantaneous re-aligning of the “Taliban” + Army opinion once India seemed ready to strike. “Mehsud is a patriot” … The same Mehsud that their frothy-mouthed stooge, Zaid Hamid declared to be a “RAW asset” a day before the “patriot” statement by ISPR.
????
We’re not out of the woods yet, because now the indians are complaining that Pakistan is creating ‘war hysteria’ … so that kind of gives credence to your ‘army wants war’ theory.
Pejamistri says:
December 24th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
@GoTK
I was away… but let me comments on your posts in chronological order… so first..
dude I got news. Zardari killed Benazir. Everything points to it. This is why he’s not moving on it……
Please excuse my famous “Know-All” expression , but that’s where I can not help using this.
You see I am all confusion and you are all “Sure” , I am all questions and you are all answers , I am the small x in indeterminate equation and you are the “(planck’s) constant” in equation. So you know Zardari killed BB , I want UN investigation team to find out who killed BB :)…
For the “Hosni Mubarik” thingy , I am amused there were two times when I got afraid of “Hosni Mubarik” phenomenon in Pakistan , once the “GREAT” ameer-ul-moomneen Hazrat General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq Rahmat-ullah Alaiha , ghazi-e-millat , faatih-e-Kabul were ruling , there is no doubt democratic forces trying their best to topple ameer-ul-moomneen, Junejo, young BB, mature Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan all were doing great, but you know “ameer-ul-moomneen” was not perturbed by them , he had a large following in the urban areas and he was pretty much settled to rule like Hosni Mubarik.
Second time it was briefly in the early 1997 , when Nawaz Sharif riding the huge popularity in both urban and rural part of Punjab, NWFP got the two-third majority. I was little bit worried as he was young , had right-wing ideas and was more acceptable in the military , therefore I thought may military has found their leader after death of “ameer-ul-moomneen”. But you know what , that was the time when my faith in politicians of Pakistan got a mega-boost as the presumed “ameer-ul-moomneen” turned out to be a politician and he got away with 8th amendment instead of implementing the shariah bill , he offered olive branch to India , instead of buying missiles for USA , and decided to sit on foot -toilet seat instead of sitting in P.M house chair at the mercy of fvcking generals…
So I can’t help smiling that you would think “Asif Zardari” can become Hosni Mubarik , if he does then well it will prove two things one you are really “Know-All” , second I am nuts … which means I need to do a “Beea’t” at your hands my guru… hahahah
Pejamistri Says:
December 24th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
@GoTK
Ref:24 December 2008 16:08
I am not actually interested in who did Mumbai attacks , to me it has no meanings/consequences who did or didn’t do it. I remember on BBC someone wrote an article calling Mumbai attacks a new phenomenon in terrorism which he called perhaps “show biz terrorism” where few disgruntled youth with few thousand dollars take up arms, knowing very well that there “show” will be telecasted live on all the sattelite channels :)…. So you see what I mean… it is not important at all who did it…
Important thing is who does what after Mumbai attacks. And that’s where I see Pak Army using it to generate the war hysteria and gaining public sympathies and maligning the politicians (see it is not only AZ but NS as well) …
And I see India using it to get economic sanctions on Pakistan.
Pejamistri says:
December 24th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
Coming to the Kargil-II possibility, it seems to me that it may quite be possible and I am really worried about this scenario. The Kargil-II has not happened yet , but it is quite possible that the army generals decide to embark on another misadventure , remember “Operation Gibralter” ,people usually think that it happened one night , in reality there were strained relations and blame game between Pakistan and India for quite sometime. There used to be “air space violations” , “firing along the LoC and borders” etc.. for quite a few months.
Looking at the chances of a Kargil-II, I would think they are merely 40% or below. As I said although army is ready to accept and acceptable level of survival , but they don’t want to commit suicide. It is true that they would like to have their image restored in the eyes of “urban educated” public , by creating war hysteria in major cities. At the same time they also want to mend their differences (or should I say hostility) with the Mullahs , they would like to get out of Mullah’s fire line, but they can not afford to have an all-out war with India , a small Kargil could have all the probability to lead to an all-out war…
…
Ghost Of TK Says:
December 24th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
@peja: re: seriously funny, fair enough, but then again, explain the GoP asking PRC to NOT BLOCK the resolution against JuD.
If there is a Mullah-Military nexus, this will weaken Mullah’s …
If kiyani is in control, then how did zardari dare to do it?
If there is a MM nexus, and Zardari did it anyways, then is not using the situation against the jurnails? Same thing that they were trying to use against him (ie; Kargil-II which I think mumbai was) courtesy of Mr. Qasab et. al.
……..
Pejamistri Says:
December 24th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
@GoTK
At the risk of annoying “Beardos” , let me put argument in another way…
If kiyani is in control, then how did zardari dare to do it?
If there is a MM nexus, and Zardari did it anyways, then is not using the situation against the jurnails?
You see you are the Muslim/Christian ,”a monotheist” , you believe that only one god rules Pakistan , it is either Kiyani or Zardari , or it may be a trinity Zardari-Kiyani-XYZ etc… I am the “hindu” , a polytheist whose “gods” are always fighting with each other , when the god of Sun wants the the Sun to shine , the god of clouds wants the clouds to rain … you see what I mean….
I have no idea why GoP will ask PRC not to block the resolution against JuD, I even have no idea whether it actually happened, I even have no idea if China is gay (loves Pakistan too much that it would STOP resolution against JuD on Pakistan’s instructions ) or straight (likes to play safe :)… I hope you understand what I mean).
So in a nutshell what China did was what he should have done … there is no question that any country will stop resolution against JuD after the Mumbai attacks.
……..
pejamistri Says:
December 24th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Hasan Mujtaba on Kargil-II & Maulana Hippi..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/miscellaneous/story/2008/12/081223_hasan_column_sen.shtml …
…..
Pejamistri says:
December 25th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
It may not be surprising for me if I had read some research in collective human psychology (if there was any research) , however it is amazing that how the sense of “false patriotism” as I call it, blinds the people with facts and realities.
For example how easy it is to believe that the Pakistan army is so bestial , barbaric and cold blooded murderers that these soldiers won’t have qualms of conscious while burning alive the innocent little girls with chemical weapons , but how difficult it is to believe for the same people that the same army can kill the hindus (in Mumbai massacre).
These people have no problems in believing that this army is killing their own people , abducting their own people , selling their own people , but at the same time the same army is ready to die for the sake of same people.
In existentialism their is a term known as “Karamazov Nature” which means that a person can contemplate two extremes at once, let me quote here
Karamazov is just such a two-sided nature, fluctuating between two extremes, that even when moved by the most violent craving for riotous gaiety, he can pull himself up, if something strikes him on the other side. And on the other side is love.
I thought Karamzov nature applies only to individual , but can it also apply to the collection of humans?, is it possible that a cold blooded army on a killing spree of the humans has so much soft and caring heart that at the same time it is ready to defend the same people.
There is no question that the war hysteria being created by the Pakistan military , by having “low flying air force jets” , issuing “on my dead body” like audacious statements, is just part of re-branding themselves. I personally think that such attempts have no consequences , the constituency that such attempts targets is the “urban educated” population , remember we have seen such thing for over 11 years when their used to be 23rd March parades , weapon exhibition and Ghazi-e-millat ameer-ul-moomneen used to tell about the blessings of jihad , however just after his death the people of Pakistan choose the “lady in the green”….
The thing I got worried over the past on week is the possibility of another misadventure , until yesterday I give 40% chances of such a probability however after talking few people in Pakistan it seems that the probability could be higher than this.
Although I don’t have complete information but it seems that India is encouraging Pakistan army to go for a small scale misadventure , the important point is that India is no mood for an all-out war (which Pakistan army believes is good for them), however in that limited battle they want to tone down their own public anger , by as usual showing to the public that they defeated Pakistan army yet again (remember Kargil, 1971 etc..)… on the other hand Pakistan army believes that using “false patriotism” in the dozens of television channels they can create the similar false picture of their virtual success (again recall Kargil and 1965) … so it may give a win-win to both India and Pakistan…
The worrying thing however is that it is hard to trust Pakistan Army specially the known “internal rifts” and the possibility of use of nukes. It is very hard to find out how the limited war can turn out specially in this new world with communication revolution….
….
Pejamistri says:
December 25th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
@sashah,
Very interesting … you mentioned you have been visiting indian blogs , recently somebody posted here a question asking for links to indian blogs, would you be able to supply the links to those blogs I would be really interested as well…
Now coming to your response…
No doubt the role of militry in pakistan’s political history has not been good(even worst)
I am smiling at even worst why not just call it “has not been good”? … can you tell me what you mean by worst.. and what is meant by “has not been good” , to be honest it is very hard to judge the “has not been good” and “worst” , for example for some overthrowing the democratic government (for some government of NS and for some government of ZAB) is “not a good act” and for some it is worst?.. similarly it is hard to qualify acts of killing at lal masjid, waziristan , balochistan etc… as “not good” or “worst” , I would really appericiate if you could enlighten me which act of army has not bee “good” and which was “worst”….
Aaah… I would love to agree with you that the Kiyani is the angel…. remember I talked about the Karmazov nature … perhaps he has one such nature ….
My friend re-read my comments… just like I did , and reading them again I realized your words are very familiar to me …. the “verbal diarrhea guy” .. guess who?????
I am away from Pakistan and It makes me sad when I see Pakistanis fighting with each other on a Blog using abusive language. LACK OF TOLERANCE in EDUCATED Pakistanis.
……
kafka8 Says:
December 26th, 2008 at 10:18 am
@peja
i spoke to a few ppp insiders and they agreed that indeed zardari is trying to use america/india to cut the army down to size.
but my non-ppp friends insist that my hatred for faujistan has blinded me to the incompetence of zardaro.
what say ye…O’ faithful defender of all things democratic!!
ps: tk, shirkuh, bohkhari, nrkh…do jump in once peja replies
…….
Pejamistri says:
December 26th, 2008 at 11:12 am
@kafka8
I come from a “software engineering” background , there we use a term called “abstraction” , higher the level of abstraction, lower the visibility of implementation details. Most of the time I look at the politics in Pakistan from higher abstract level , where AZ, NS, IK , mad dictator, Kiyanis etc.. are less visible instead we have democratic force and establishment and the BATTLE.
Now coming back to your question, at lower abstract level , my conviction for AZ “cutting army down to size” is not based on the current , past or future actions of Zardari, they are based on simple theory of perpetual battle between establishment and the democratic forces. I explained this earlier somewhere that it is like a proverbial animosity between the cat and dog, I usually quote the example of NS in 1997 , who got the heavy public mandate and was (is?) a right wing leader , having (still?) vast sympathies in the establishment forces and having no visible differences in terms of right-wing (islamic?) policies for Pakistan…. but since he was a popular leader trusted by the people of Pakistan and came through democratic means , therefore his existence would mean extinction of the establishment (army), consequently he was overthrown…
AZ must have made several compromises with the army in order to get into the government (there may be hundreds of reasons why he made those compromises and why he did not adopt a rigid approach)…. remember BB in 1988 , when she made much worse compromises with the army in order to get the government. But these compromises do not have much impact on the battle between the two…
In fact I would like to rephrase/revert your question and you will see how much does it make sense?…. i.e.
I spoke to a few establishment insiders and they agreed that indeed establishment is trying to use america/india to cut the PPP/ANP/PMLN down to size.
So in a nutshell whether AZ is using America/India against the army or not at this moment, this battle is on , establishment (army) is on the look to find an opportune moment to send the “bloody civilians” back , and democratic force are steadily moving towards getting Pakistan out of woods…
P.S.
At this moment by the way establishment (army)’s only objective is to get their image repainted , they are using every opportunity for this purpose even at the cost of more deaths to the people of Pakistan (the war hysteria, giving room to extremist in NWFP, shaking hands with mullahs, threatening (hollow) US to bring drones down etc…)
…
Pejamistri says:
December 26th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
@GoTK
Ref:December 26th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
That’s pure politics, a rebellion within the party , remember there are very mature politicians in the rebellious group. YRG , AA, Safdar Abbasi’s etc.. of this PPP are not mere pawns
NS doing “very sensible politics” , “a mature politicians”.
IK making sure he himself align with the wishes of people
And so on and so on………
So do you get what it means by democratic forces? :)….
You know what, if everything went smooth and there is a mid term elections, I , like an “eighteen stone women”, will vote for NS this time (I will not be giving vote to AA+YRG group of PPP )… then there will be another rebellion against the Sharif Brothers , the great Javaid Hashmi leading the rebellious group , then again a mid term , and now I vote for AA+YRG … an so on and so on….
Some pessimism
Only thing I would be worried is another mad dictator. Then again pejamistri, then again the CJ , then again …. … haha………
……
Pejamistri says:
December 26th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
@GoTK
At the very least one should criticize those areas,
heehehe… you are borrowing pharases from beardos a lot my friend…
There are so many people criticizing him (AZ), I am not talking about the critics on ….s which are just “bu11shit” …
Do you really know why there are 4 line news everyday YRG is staying , YRG is going, why Amin Fahim gets here daughter in Ireland , why Safdar Abbasi etc.. started appearing on news channels….
BTW there is a central executive committee meeting today…
and there is another statement from Ban Ki Mon about the UN team for investigation…
On UN investigation let me tell you important thing is the mandate of the UN team , there are several groups fighting about this , of course ISI the major one. There are voices about getting the UN investigation team formulated through a UN security council resolution… you can imagine what it will mean for all the players involved in BB’s murder….
….
Pejamistri says:
December 26th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
@GoTK
Just in case you get worried that somehow I am suggesting AZ may be involved in BB’s murder, you already know I don’t buy such bu!!shit…. the differences between all the people in PPP are purely political (and you know politics is based vested interest too… )
BTW you see my dilemma, in Pakistan, people are always talking in extreme , their are either satans or angels (no more humans)… of course this is because they have been dealing with satans (establishment) , therefore as their opposite they search for angels…. so it is hard for the “urban educated” people to understand what it means by being human and what it means by the “vested interest” of a human :)…
…
Marcvs_Tacitvs_Cicero Says:
December 27th, 2008 at 1:49 am
I admire @Peja as much as I admire Mukhtaran Mai.
I think @Peja knows EXACTLY how this is going to turn out. He knows that this ZPP government is fantastically incompetent and outdoes the previous BB governments in its corruption. He knows there will be another Martial Law. He knows Zardari will be swinging from a lamp post.
But just like a good rape victim, he has mentally accepted this situation.
What he writes is merely his process of psychological rationalization of the coming abuse he knows PPP workers will suffer. Like some masochist, he is getting ready.
Haakim-e-shahr bhi , majma’-e-’aam bhee
teer-e-ilzaam bhi , saNg-e-dushnaam bhee
SubH-e-naashaad bhi , roz-e-naakaam bhee
in kaa dam.saaz apnay siwaa kon hay
shahr-e-jaanaaN meN ab baaSafaa kon hay
dast-e-qaatil ke shaayaaN rahaa kon hay
rakht-e-dil baaNdh lo dil figaaro chalo
Phir hameeN qatl ho aa.eN yaaro chalo
……
Pejamistri says:
December 27th, 2008 at 6:27 am
@MTC
I was just going to ask you when is the next martial law, sometimes back you said it is not far off….
I think @Peja knows EXACTLY how this is going to turn out. He knows that this ZPP government is fantastically incompetent and outdoes the previous BB governments in its corruption. He knows there will be another Martial Law. He knows Zardari will be swinging from a lamp post.
EXACTLY I already know how is it doing it turn out… I predicted even before the elections happened. Remember
mausam aya tau nakhle-daar pe meer
sar-e-Mansoor ka hi baar aya
This is not because I am “MTC” or “GoTK” and I “Know-all” , this is because I have fought this battle for a long time , I know its rounds and I know what is coming next.
Yes the rape is inevitable , the rape of the nation at the hands of another mad dictator, along with its forces , but you know now it is not PPP only which is affected by this rape , it is the “Chief Justices”, “Nawaz Sharifs” and “Media” who are also unwilling victim in this rape…
However I don’t search for excuses for this “rape” , saying that “BB’s government was corrupt” , “Nawaz Sharif government was incompetent” and “AZ government is fantastically incompetent” is like saying since “the girl was too pretty, and she had lesser cloths , and the rapists was starved of s3x for many days , therefore my Lord please have mercy on the rapist!!!”
Or at the risk of annoying beardos again let me say this … “A woman with lesser cloth is more prone to rape than a woman in the viel… as there are male wolf out there on the look for them” … similarly “A corrupt government is more prone to be dismissed by the generals than a “government by angels” as military ba$tard$ are out there to rape bloody civilians“.
My friend until you understand why democracy produces people like “Bush” and “Blair” as the leaders in “civilized” society and why they are allowed to “rule” during their tenure, it will be hard for you to understand my “syndrome”, although I can perfectly understand your “genetic disorder” caused by the Ameer-ul-mooneen General Zia’s rape of this nation….
..
pejamistri Says:
December 27th, 2008 at 6:46 am
@GoTK
Thanks for the compliments…
It seems though you did not read my comments carefully , I mentioned that people look for “angels” because they are faced by “satans” and it is not the “common man” who looks for “angels” , it is the “urban educated” man…
And by AZ is still the C-in-C and is leading the troops :). There is no change….
I will come back to generalization/abstraction theory little bit later. In the meanwhile “do contribute on the death anniversary of shaheed-e-millat Mohtarama Benazir Bhutto” as who knows you may have to write something for “Shaheed-e-Jamhooriat Izzat Maaab Asif Ali Zardari”… I love when people have to write/say something against their convictions
Read more...
An interesting conversation between some educated Pakistanis
pejamistri Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
It seems to me that ISI has asked all the “beardo brigade” members to focus on …..
There are several reasons for this. Initially it started with the bashing of political parties after the removal of the mad dictator, however after the Mumbai attacks, ISI decided exploit the misplaced/misguided patriotism of “educated” youth of Pakistan hence they went for an all out propaganda.
Pejamistri says:
December 24th, 2008 at 11:36 am
Earlier I mentioned that for the people of India and United States, the best thing is to support people of Pakistan. However true to their past governments of both countries (specially Indians are not interested in it) of course they believe that they can survive several more 9/11s, Mumbai attacks.
While the military of Pakistan is generating a war hysteria in Pakistan in an attempt to ride on the sentiments of false patriotism and win the “hearts” of people of Pakistan. However Indians are hitting the people of Pakistan where it hits the most i.e. Financially and Diplomatically.
Today Indians are trying to prevail over Sri Lankan government to cancel the upcoming Cricket tour of Pakistan. BTW Sri Lankan Army and Pakistan Military have been “comrades in arms” for a very long time , in fact mad dictator was in Sri Lankan Military headquarters when Nawaz Sharif sacked him , and their are news that Sri Lankan army helped him with intelligence during his visit their against the wishes of government of Pakistan.
Moreover India is going to make a case of economic sanctions against Pakistan early next year which may then cause stoppage of IMF’s installment next year.
Is it a coincidence that just after 1988 , Americans approved/invoked Pressler amendment and United Nations were worried about the Nuclear arms in the decade of 90’s , and now just after the mad dictator has gone and Pakistan is under civilian rule we find the US and Indians again trying to put Pakistan in economic jail.
That is why I ask my friends in US, why were they surprised about 9/11 when their own government asked for it , and how could they be surprised about “Manhattan dirty bombing” when their government is again asking for it. For eight years US, Indians, and some Europeans were supporting the mad dictator’s regime with 70 billion dollars , despite 7/7 (British 9/11 as they call it) they kept giving money to directly to Pakistan army and indirectly to extremists.
And now when there is a civilian government in Pakistan , they are making hue and cry about the 9/11 of a country which is just trying to be part of “civilized nations”, whose in civilized record is suspicious.
Remember Pakistan army wants war euphoria , they want to use Mumbai attacks to gain public sympathy and improve their reputation. They may even think of small Kargil like battle which could as usual be disaster, on the other hand Indians it seems are not interested in war instead they want economic sanctions against Pakistan. Whereas Americans are busy in transition.
pejamistri Says:
December 24th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
@GoTK
Just like you I am also waiting for Zardari to do one single thing right. It’s been a year and he could not get UN team for BB’s murder investigation.
There is a difference however between my disappointment and yours and that is if Zardari fails , I trust NS , if he fails I trust IK and if he fails too then I trus Zardari (if he is still there in Pakistan ) , and if he is not there I start trusting NS again , and if in the meanwhile GoTK becomes a popular politician I will start trusting him…. all the while democratic system is there , politician are fighting , defeating each other and I am voting….
Ghost Of TK says:
December 24th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
@peja: They may even think of small Kargil like battle which could as usual be disaster,
Out of the various possiblities, do you think Mumbai may have been Kargil_2 which the world has averted? ie; India attack pakistan, military gets to not fight its choochaa’s ??
I still am not sure. Though I am flip-flopping between fals-flag conspiracy theories (india/mossad did it using beardos) and Kargil-II (arms length ISI assets did it using .. you guessed it.. the beardo’s)
The reason I’m leaning towards a “plausibly deniable” inovlvement of the ISI networks is because Hamid Gul was really a cheery little fvcker right after the attacks and he came on one show and claimed he was lifting weights alredy to get ready for war and that 25 lakh retired fauji’s were ready to fight (the 2.5 million Bat-men … can you imagine the wings flapping?)
He has also been making statements last year that 2009 will be the “year of the revolution”. I’m sure JI and other PiThoo’s will like nothing better than “another revolution in the interest of the nation”
The level of activity in favor of “mard-e mujahid Hamid Gul” after such moronic interview was very interesting. On most news forums new ID’s started appearing with statements like “Hamid Gul is right! He is true mujahid…” etc. again.. a feeble attempt on the part of the agencies to give credence to his batshit crazy ideas …
so… was it a false flag by mossad?
or a self-directed false flag by Gul and company with the beardo’s given the kind of training that they would leave a trail of evidence that would lead to pakistan, cause a conflagaration, army moves out of swat/FATA to eastern border, emergency is declared and Kayani eventually takes over.
Also interesting was the near instantaneous re-aligning of the “Taliban” + Army opinion once India seemed ready to strike. “Mehsud is a patriot” … The same Mehsud that their frothy-mouthed stooge, Zaid Hamid declared to be a “RAW asset” a day before the “patriot” statement by ISPR.
????
We’re not out of the woods yet, because now the indians are complaining that Pakistan is creating ‘war hysteria’ … so that kind of gives credence to your ‘army wants war’ theory.
Pejamistri says:
December 24th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
@GoTK
I was away… but let me comments on your posts in chronological order… so first..
dude I got news. Zardari killed Benazir. Everything points to it. This is why he’s not moving on it……
Please excuse my famous “Know-All” expression , but that’s where I can not help using this.
You see I am all confusion and you are all “Sure” , I am all questions and you are all answers , I am the small x in indeterminate equation and you are the “(planck’s) constant” in equation. So you know Zardari killed BB , I want UN investigation team to find out who killed BB :)…
For the “Hosni Mubarik” thingy , I am amused there were two times when I got afraid of “Hosni Mubarik” phenomenon in Pakistan , once the “GREAT” ameer-ul-moomneen Hazrat General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq Rahmat-ullah Alaiha , ghazi-e-millat , faatih-e-Kabul were ruling , there is no doubt democratic forces trying their best to topple ameer-ul-moomneen, Junejo, young BB, mature Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan all were doing great, but you know “ameer-ul-moomneen” was not perturbed by them , he had a large following in the urban areas and he was pretty much settled to rule like Hosni Mubarik.
Second time it was briefly in the early 1997 , when Nawaz Sharif riding the huge popularity in both urban and rural part of Punjab, NWFP got the two-third majority. I was little bit worried as he was young , had right-wing ideas and was more acceptable in the military , therefore I thought may military has found their leader after death of “ameer-ul-moomneen”. But you know what , that was the time when my faith in politicians of Pakistan got a mega-boost as the presumed “ameer-ul-moomneen” turned out to be a politician and he got away with 8th amendment instead of implementing the shariah bill , he offered olive branch to India , instead of buying missiles for USA , and decided to sit on foot -toilet seat instead of sitting in P.M house chair at the mercy of fvcking generals…
So I can’t help smiling that you would think “Asif Zardari” can become Hosni Mubarik , if he does then well it will prove two things one you are really “Know-All” , second I am nuts … which means I need to do a “Beea’t” at your hands my guru… hahahah
Pejamistri Says:
December 24th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
@GoTK
Ref:24 December 2008 16:08
I am not actually interested in who did Mumbai attacks , to me it has no meanings/consequences who did or didn’t do it. I remember on BBC someone wrote an article calling Mumbai attacks a new phenomenon in terrorism which he called perhaps “show biz terrorism” where few disgruntled youth with few thousand dollars take up arms, knowing very well that there “show” will be telecasted live on all the sattelite channels :)…. So you see what I mean… it is not important at all who did it…
Important thing is who does what after Mumbai attacks. And that’s where I see Pak Army using it to generate the war hysteria and gaining public sympathies and maligning the politicians (see it is not only AZ but NS as well) …
And I see India using it to get economic sanctions on Pakistan.
Pejamistri says:
December 24th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
Coming to the Kargil-II possibility, it seems to me that it may quite be possible and I am really worried about this scenario. The Kargil-II has not happened yet , but it is quite possible that the army generals decide to embark on another misadventure , remember “Operation Gibralter” ,people usually think that it happened one night , in reality there were strained relations and blame game between Pakistan and India for quite sometime. There used to be “air space violations” , “firing along the LoC and borders” etc.. for quite a few months.
Looking at the chances of a Kargil-II, I would think they are merely 40% or below. As I said although army is ready to accept and acceptable level of survival , but they don’t want to commit suicide. It is true that they would like to have their image restored in the eyes of “urban educated” public , by creating war hysteria in major cities. At the same time they also want to mend their differences (or should I say hostility) with the Mullahs , they would like to get out of Mullah’s fire line, but they can not afford to have an all-out war with India , a small Kargil could have all the probability to lead to an all-out war…
…
Ghost Of TK Says:
December 24th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
@peja: re: seriously funny, fair enough, but then again, explain the GoP asking PRC to NOT BLOCK the resolution against JuD.
If there is a Mullah-Military nexus, this will weaken Mullah’s …
If kiyani is in control, then how did zardari dare to do it?
If there is a MM nexus, and Zardari did it anyways, then is not using the situation against the jurnails? Same thing that they were trying to use against him (ie; Kargil-II which I think mumbai was) courtesy of Mr. Qasab et. al.
……..
Pejamistri Says:
December 24th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
@GoTK
At the risk of annoying “Beardos” , let me put argument in another way…
If kiyani is in control, then how did zardari dare to do it?
If there is a MM nexus, and Zardari did it anyways, then is not using the situation against the jurnails?
You see you are the Muslim/Christian ,”a monotheist” , you believe that only one god rules Pakistan , it is either Kiyani or Zardari , or it may be a trinity Zardari-Kiyani-XYZ etc… I am the “hindu” , a polytheist whose “gods” are always fighting with each other , when the god of Sun wants the the Sun to shine , the god of clouds wants the clouds to rain … you see what I mean….
I have no idea why GoP will ask PRC not to block the resolution against JuD, I even have no idea whether it actually happened, I even have no idea if China is gay (loves Pakistan too much that it would STOP resolution against JuD on Pakistan’s instructions ) or straight (likes to play safe :)… I hope you understand what I mean).
So in a nutshell what China did was what he should have done … there is no question that any country will stop resolution against JuD after the Mumbai attacks.
……..
pejamistri Says:
December 24th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Hasan Mujtaba on Kargil-II & Maulana Hippi..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/miscellaneous/story/2008/12/081223_hasan_column_sen.shtml …
…..
Pejamistri says:
December 25th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
It may not be surprising for me if I had read some research in collective human psychology (if there was any research) , however it is amazing that how the sense of “false patriotism” as I call it, blinds the people with facts and realities.
For example how easy it is to believe that the Pakistan army is so bestial , barbaric and cold blooded murderers that these soldiers won’t have qualms of conscious while burning alive the innocent little girls with chemical weapons , but how difficult it is to believe for the same people that the same army can kill the hindus (in Mumbai massacre).
These people have no problems in believing that this army is killing their own people , abducting their own people , selling their own people , but at the same time the same army is ready to die for the sake of same people.
In existentialism their is a term known as “Karamazov Nature” which means that a person can contemplate two extremes at once, let me quote here
Karamazov is just such a two-sided nature, fluctuating between two extremes, that even when moved by the most violent craving for riotous gaiety, he can pull himself up, if something strikes him on the other side. And on the other side is love.
I thought Karamzov nature applies only to individual , but can it also apply to the collection of humans?, is it possible that a cold blooded army on a killing spree of the humans has so much soft and caring heart that at the same time it is ready to defend the same people.
There is no question that the war hysteria being created by the Pakistan military , by having “low flying air force jets” , issuing “on my dead body” like audacious statements, is just part of re-branding themselves. I personally think that such attempts have no consequences , the constituency that such attempts targets is the “urban educated” population , remember we have seen such thing for over 11 years when their used to be 23rd March parades , weapon exhibition and Ghazi-e-millat ameer-ul-moomneen used to tell about the blessings of jihad , however just after his death the people of Pakistan choose the “lady in the green”….
The thing I got worried over the past on week is the possibility of another misadventure , until yesterday I give 40% chances of such a probability however after talking few people in Pakistan it seems that the probability could be higher than this.
Although I don’t have complete information but it seems that India is encouraging Pakistan army to go for a small scale misadventure , the important point is that India is no mood for an all-out war (which Pakistan army believes is good for them), however in that limited battle they want to tone down their own public anger , by as usual showing to the public that they defeated Pakistan army yet again (remember Kargil, 1971 etc..)… on the other hand Pakistan army believes that using “false patriotism” in the dozens of television channels they can create the similar false picture of their virtual success (again recall Kargil and 1965) … so it may give a win-win to both India and Pakistan…
The worrying thing however is that it is hard to trust Pakistan Army specially the known “internal rifts” and the possibility of use of nukes. It is very hard to find out how the limited war can turn out specially in this new world with communication revolution….
….
Pejamistri says:
December 25th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
@sashah,
Very interesting … you mentioned you have been visiting indian blogs , recently somebody posted here a question asking for links to indian blogs, would you be able to supply the links to those blogs I would be really interested as well…
Now coming to your response…
No doubt the role of militry in pakistan’s political history has not been good(even worst)
I am smiling at even worst why not just call it “has not been good”? … can you tell me what you mean by worst.. and what is meant by “has not been good” , to be honest it is very hard to judge the “has not been good” and “worst” , for example for some overthrowing the democratic government (for some government of NS and for some government of ZAB) is “not a good act” and for some it is worst?.. similarly it is hard to qualify acts of killing at lal masjid, waziristan , balochistan etc… as “not good” or “worst” , I would really appericiate if you could enlighten me which act of army has not bee “good” and which was “worst”….
Aaah… I would love to agree with you that the Kiyani is the angel…. remember I talked about the Karmazov nature … perhaps he has one such nature ….
My friend re-read my comments… just like I did , and reading them again I realized your words are very familiar to me …. the “verbal diarrhea guy” .. guess who?????
I am away from Pakistan and It makes me sad when I see Pakistanis fighting with each other on a Blog using abusive language. LACK OF TOLERANCE in EDUCATED Pakistanis.
……
kafka8 Says:
December 26th, 2008 at 10:18 am
@peja
i spoke to a few ppp insiders and they agreed that indeed zardari is trying to use america/india to cut the army down to size.
but my non-ppp friends insist that my hatred for faujistan has blinded me to the incompetence of zardaro.
what say ye…O’ faithful defender of all things democratic!!
ps: tk, shirkuh, bohkhari, nrkh…do jump in once peja replies
…….
Pejamistri says:
December 26th, 2008 at 11:12 am
@kafka8
I come from a “software engineering” background , there we use a term called “abstraction” , higher the level of abstraction, lower the visibility of implementation details. Most of the time I look at the politics in Pakistan from higher abstract level , where AZ, NS, IK , mad dictator, Kiyanis etc.. are less visible instead we have democratic force and establishment and the BATTLE.
Now coming back to your question, at lower abstract level , my conviction for AZ “cutting army down to size” is not based on the current , past or future actions of Zardari, they are based on simple theory of perpetual battle between establishment and the democratic forces. I explained this earlier somewhere that it is like a proverbial animosity between the cat and dog, I usually quote the example of NS in 1997 , who got the heavy public mandate and was (is?) a right wing leader , having (still?) vast sympathies in the establishment forces and having no visible differences in terms of right-wing (islamic?) policies for Pakistan…. but since he was a popular leader trusted by the people of Pakistan and came through democratic means , therefore his existence would mean extinction of the establishment (army), consequently he was overthrown…
AZ must have made several compromises with the army in order to get into the government (there may be hundreds of reasons why he made those compromises and why he did not adopt a rigid approach)…. remember BB in 1988 , when she made much worse compromises with the army in order to get the government. But these compromises do not have much impact on the battle between the two…
In fact I would like to rephrase/revert your question and you will see how much does it make sense?…. i.e.
I spoke to a few establishment insiders and they agreed that indeed establishment is trying to use america/india to cut the PPP/ANP/PMLN down to size.
So in a nutshell whether AZ is using America/India against the army or not at this moment, this battle is on , establishment (army) is on the look to find an opportune moment to send the “bloody civilians” back , and democratic force are steadily moving towards getting Pakistan out of woods…
P.S.
At this moment by the way establishment (army)’s only objective is to get their image repainted , they are using every opportunity for this purpose even at the cost of more deaths to the people of Pakistan (the war hysteria, giving room to extremist in NWFP, shaking hands with mullahs, threatening (hollow) US to bring drones down etc…)
…
Pejamistri says:
December 26th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
@GoTK
Ref:December 26th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
That’s pure politics, a rebellion within the party , remember there are very mature politicians in the rebellious group. YRG , AA, Safdar Abbasi’s etc.. of this PPP are not mere pawns
NS doing “very sensible politics” , “a mature politicians”.
IK making sure he himself align with the wishes of people
And so on and so on………
So do you get what it means by democratic forces? :)….
You know what, if everything went smooth and there is a mid term elections, I , like an “eighteen stone women”, will vote for NS this time (I will not be giving vote to AA+YRG group of PPP )… then there will be another rebellion against the Sharif Brothers , the great Javaid Hashmi leading the rebellious group , then again a mid term , and now I vote for AA+YRG … an so on and so on….
Some pessimism
Only thing I would be worried is another mad dictator. Then again pejamistri, then again the CJ , then again …. … haha………
……
Pejamistri says:
December 26th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
@GoTK
At the very least one should criticize those areas,
heehehe… you are borrowing pharases from beardos a lot my friend…
There are so many people criticizing him (AZ), I am not talking about the critics on ….s which are just “bu11shit” …
Do you really know why there are 4 line news everyday YRG is staying , YRG is going, why Amin Fahim gets here daughter in Ireland , why Safdar Abbasi etc.. started appearing on news channels….
BTW there is a central executive committee meeting today…
and there is another statement from Ban Ki Mon about the UN team for investigation…
On UN investigation let me tell you important thing is the mandate of the UN team , there are several groups fighting about this , of course ISI the major one. There are voices about getting the UN investigation team formulated through a UN security council resolution… you can imagine what it will mean for all the players involved in BB’s murder….
….
Pejamistri says:
December 26th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
@GoTK
Just in case you get worried that somehow I am suggesting AZ may be involved in BB’s murder, you already know I don’t buy such bu!!shit…. the differences between all the people in PPP are purely political (and you know politics is based vested interest too… )
BTW you see my dilemma, in Pakistan, people are always talking in extreme , their are either satans or angels (no more humans)… of course this is because they have been dealing with satans (establishment) , therefore as their opposite they search for angels…. so it is hard for the “urban educated” people to understand what it means by being human and what it means by the “vested interest” of a human :)…
…
Marcvs_Tacitvs_Cicero Says:
December 27th, 2008 at 1:49 am
I admire @Peja as much as I admire Mukhtaran Mai.
I think @Peja knows EXACTLY how this is going to turn out. He knows that this ZPP government is fantastically incompetent and outdoes the previous BB governments in its corruption. He knows there will be another Martial Law. He knows Zardari will be swinging from a lamp post.
But just like a good rape victim, he has mentally accepted this situation.
What he writes is merely his process of psychological rationalization of the coming abuse he knows PPP workers will suffer. Like some masochist, he is getting ready.
Haakim-e-shahr bhi , majma’-e-’aam bhee
teer-e-ilzaam bhi , saNg-e-dushnaam bhee
SubH-e-naashaad bhi , roz-e-naakaam bhee
in kaa dam.saaz apnay siwaa kon hay
shahr-e-jaanaaN meN ab baaSafaa kon hay
dast-e-qaatil ke shaayaaN rahaa kon hay
rakht-e-dil baaNdh lo dil figaaro chalo
Phir hameeN qatl ho aa.eN yaaro chalo
……
Pejamistri says:
December 27th, 2008 at 6:27 am
@MTC
I was just going to ask you when is the next martial law, sometimes back you said it is not far off….
I think @Peja knows EXACTLY how this is going to turn out. He knows that this ZPP government is fantastically incompetent and outdoes the previous BB governments in its corruption. He knows there will be another Martial Law. He knows Zardari will be swinging from a lamp post.
EXACTLY I already know how is it doing it turn out… I predicted even before the elections happened. Remember
mausam aya tau nakhle-daar pe meer
sar-e-Mansoor ka hi baar aya
This is not because I am “MTC” or “GoTK” and I “Know-all” , this is because I have fought this battle for a long time , I know its rounds and I know what is coming next.
Yes the rape is inevitable , the rape of the nation at the hands of another mad dictator, along with its forces , but you know now it is not PPP only which is affected by this rape , it is the “Chief Justices”, “Nawaz Sharifs” and “Media” who are also unwilling victim in this rape…
However I don’t search for excuses for this “rape” , saying that “BB’s government was corrupt” , “Nawaz Sharif government was incompetent” and “AZ government is fantastically incompetent” is like saying since “the girl was too pretty, and she had lesser cloths , and the rapists was starved of s3x for many days , therefore my Lord please have mercy on the rapist!!!”
Or at the risk of annoying beardos again let me say this … “A woman with lesser cloth is more prone to rape than a woman in the viel… as there are male wolf out there on the look for them” … similarly “A corrupt government is more prone to be dismissed by the generals than a “government by angels” as military ba$tard$ are out there to rape bloody civilians“.
My friend until you understand why democracy produces people like “Bush” and “Blair” as the leaders in “civilized” society and why they are allowed to “rule” during their tenure, it will be hard for you to understand my “syndrome”, although I can perfectly understand your “genetic disorder” caused by the Ameer-ul-mooneen General Zia’s rape of this nation….
..
pejamistri Says:
December 27th, 2008 at 6:46 am
@GoTK
Thanks for the compliments…
It seems though you did not read my comments carefully , I mentioned that people look for “angels” because they are faced by “satans” and it is not the “common man” who looks for “angels” , it is the “urban educated” man…
And by AZ is still the C-in-C and is leading the troops :). There is no change….
I will come back to generalization/abstraction theory little bit later. In the meanwhile “do contribute on the death anniversary of shaheed-e-millat Mohtarama Benazir Bhutto” as who knows you may have to write something for “Shaheed-e-Jamhooriat Izzat Maaab Asif Ali Zardari”… I love when people have to write/say something against their convictions
Read more...
Friday, 17 October 2008
ISI WITHIN ISI: EMPIRE STRIKES BACK - By B. Raman
On July 26,2008, the Pakistan Government placed the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB) under the direct control of the Interior Division.
2.A notification issued before the departure of Prime Minister Yousef Raza Gilani for Washington for talks with President George Bush,said: “In terms of Rule 3(3) of the Rules of Business of 1973, the Prime Minister has approved the placement of the Intelligence Bureau and the Inter-Services Intelligence under the administrative, financial and operational control of the Interior Division with immediate effect.”
3.de jure, the ISI and the IB were working y under the Prime Minister, while the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) was being overseen by the Interior Minister, but de facto, they were reporting to President Pervez Musharraf till the elected Government under Gilani came to office in the last week of March,2008.
4. Since then, the Gilani Government was under pressure from the US to act against what had come to be known as “the ISI within the ISI”----- that is, a group of military officers in the ISI who were allegedly helping the Taliban in Afghanistan and the anti-India jihadi terrorist organizations.
5. In December,2003, Musharraf escaped two attempts to assassinate him at Rawalpindi allegedly mounted by Al Qaeda and pro-Al Qaeda elements with the complicity of some junior officers of the Army and the Air Force. The failure of the ISI to detect this conspiracy led to fears that there are elements in the ISI, which are opposed to co-operation with the US even against Al Qaeda.
6.Dr.Aamir Liaqat Hussain, the then Minister of State for Religious Affairs, gave expression to these fears in an interview to the "Daily Times" of Lahore on May 5, 2005. He warned that Musharraf had a lot of enemies ‘within’ who could make an attempt on his life again at any time. He said that there were certain elements within the forces who could attack the General. He added: “No common people could attack President Musharraf, but certainly there are elements in the forces who can launch yet another attack against him. There is an ISI within the ISI, which is more powerful than the original and still orchestrating many eventualities in the country.” He added that he feared a threat to his own life because he supported Musharraf's call for an enlightened and moderate Islam and had been given the task of preparing the texts of sermons advocating enlightened and moderate Islam to be used at all mosques of the Armed Forces.
7. Fears that this “ISI within the ISI” had become even stronger since then increased after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in the last week of December,2007. Many police officers suspected that it had got her killed with the help of Baitullah Mehsud, the Amir of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), but Baitullah has strongly denied that he had any role in her assassination.
8. According to Pakistani Police sources, they had strong reasons to suspect that this “ISI within the ISI” had organized the unsuccessful attempt to have President Hamid Karzai assassinated in Kabul in the last week of April,2008, and to have the Indian Embassy in Kabul blown up in July,2008.
9. While there has been talk of this ‘ISI within the ISI” since May,2005, nobody has so far been able to identify the officers constituting it. Senior Pakistani Army officers deny its existence and describe the allegations of Dr.Aamir Liaqat Hussain as a figment of his fertile imagination.
10. The transfer of the ISI and the IB to the Interior Ministry was seen by senior Army officers as an attempt by Asif Zardari to make Rehman Malik, his close confidante, who is designated as the Adviser to the Interior Ministry with the status of a Cabinet Minister, the Czar of all intelligence agencies directly reporting to him.
11. The proposed transfer met with a storm of protests from the ISI itself and from the General Headquarters (GHQ) of the Army due to the following reasons:
Senior Army officers were outraged that the Director-General of the ISI, who is a Lt.Gen, should be asked to work under Malik, a retired police officer, who held a post equivalent to the rank of a Major-General when he was in service.
All the papers regarding Pakistan’s clandestine procurement of nuclear and missile technologies from China and missile technology from North Korea are in the ISI. The interrogation of A.Q.Khan, the Pakistani nuclear scientist, in 2004 under US pressure was done by Lt.Gen.Ehsan-ul-Haq, the former DG of the ISI. All the papers relating to L’Affaire A.Q.Khan are in the ISI. In the wake of the recent allegations by A.Q.Khan about Musharraf’s prior knowledge and approval of his dealings with North Korea, the attempt to remove the ISI from the control of the Army was viewed by Musharraf and other senior Army officers as an attempt by the US to get access to these papers through Malik.
Similarly, the proposed transfer of the ISI, which is responsible for covert operations against India and Afghanistan, was viewed by them as an attempt by the US to have access to details of these operations.
12. Following these protests, the Government reversed the notification within 24 hours and restored the status quo ante. The Government issued another notification which said that the earlier notification had been ‘misunderstood’ and that the ISI would “continue to function under the Prime Minister”.“The previous notification only “re-emphasised the need for more coordination between Ministry of Interior and the ISI in relation to the war on terror and internal security.” It said a detailed notification would be issued later to clarify the situation.
13. Annexed is an updated version of article on the ISI, which I had written for an Italian journal in the last week of January,2008. (30-7-08)
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretriat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director,Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com
ANNEXURE
THE INTER-SERVICES INTELLIGENCE OF PAKISTAN
The Intelligence Bureau (IB) of undivided India, which was created by the British colonial rulers, to collect domestic political intelligence was largely a police organization. It had no responsibility for the collection of foreign intelligence.
At the time of the partition of India in 1947, its personnel, assets and records were divided between India and Pakistan. Most of the Muslim police officers serving in the IB of undivided India chose to join the IB of Pakistan. Others stayed behind in the IB of India.
The Government of independent India placed its IB under the control of the Ministry of Home Affairs and expanded its charter to make it responsible for the collection of internal as well as foreign intelligence. This position continued till September 21,1968, when the Government of India bifurcated the IB and converted its foreign intelligence division into an independent organization called the Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW). The R&AW was placed directly under the Prime Minister and was made part of the Cabinet Secretariat, which functions under the Prime Minister.
Like the IB, the R&AW too was initially a largely police organization with a small number of military officers taken on deputation to handle military intelligence. Since then, the predominance of police officers has been reduced and more officers unconnected with the police have been inducted into the R&AW. It is a largely civilian organization with a small number of military officers.
The evolution in Pakistan took a different path. The IB of Pakistan, which is part of the Ministry of the Interior, was initially a largely police organization and was given the responsibility for the collection of internal and external intelligence. However, following complaints from the Army about the poor performance of the IB and its police officers during the first Indo-Pakistan war of 1947-48 over Kashmir, the Government of Pakistan created a new organization called the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate and made it responsible for the collection of foreign intelligence.
The ISI was placed under the control of the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and its personnel were taken from the three wings of the armed forces. It became a military-dominated intelligence agency.
Initially, the ISI had no responsibility for the collection of internal intelligence, which continued to be collected by the police officers of the IB. This position started changing after the Army started meddling in politics in the late 1950s. Field Marshal Ayub Khan ( President during 1958-69), who distrusted the police officers of the IB, made the ISI responsible for the collection of internal intelligence too having a bearing on national security. He also created in the ISI a Covert Action Division to provide assistance to the tribal insurgents in India’s North-East.
The internal intelligence role of the ISI was further strengthened under the late Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto (1971-77) and then under the late Gen.Zia ul Haq (1977-88), who overthrew Bhutto and seized power in 1977. Both Bhutto and Zia used the Political Division of the ISI for the collection of intelligence about their political opponents and the ethnic and linguistic minorities. While the police officers of the IB continued to perform their internal intelligence collection role, the reports of the ISI were given greater credence than those of the IB.
Under Z.A.Bhutto and Zia, the role of the Covert Action Division of the ISI was expanded and strengthened in order to enable it to assist Sikh and Kashmiri separatists in India and radical elements in the Indian Muslim community. The assistance was in the form of funds, training and supply of arms, ammunition and explosives.
Z.A.Bhutto also ordered the creation of a new Division in the ISI to assist the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission in the clandestine procurement of nuclear technology and equipment from abroad. This Division played an active role in helping Pakistan acquire a military nuclear capability.
Thus, when Zia overthrew Bhutto and seized power in 1977, the ISI had three important roles---collection of internal and external intelligence, covert action in India and clandestine procurement of nuclear technology and equipment.
The internal political intelligence Division of the ISI came under considerable criticism after the death of Zia in a plane crash in August,1988. The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) of Mrs.Benazir Bhutto won the elections held thereafter. The ISI, then headed by Lt.Gen.Hamid Gul, strongly opposed her taking over as the Prime Minister. It alleged that she was in touch with India when she was living in political exile in the UK and hence projected her as a security risk.
Under US pressure, the Army and the ISI agreed to her becoming the Prime Minister on condition that she would not have anything to do with the nuclear programme. Even after she had assumed office, the ISI kept disseminating reports alleging that she was an Indian agent. The ISI’s animosity to her increased when she abolished the internal political intelligence Division and ordered the Covert Action Division to stop supporting the Sikh separatists of India. However, she gave it a free hand in J&K.
The ISI’s animosity to her resulted in her dismissal by the then President Ghulam Ishaq Khan in August,1990, and fresh elections. During the elections, the ISI, with money allegedly donated by a private bank, assisted the Pakistan Muslim League (PML) of Mr.Nawaz Sharif and the Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI) in their election campaign and worked against the candidates of the PPP.
The PML and the JEI won the majority of seats. After taking over as the Prime Minister, Nawaz ordered the re-establishment of the internal political intelligence Division of the ISI. He also made Brig.Imtiaz, who used to head the Political Division of the ISI before 1988, the Director of the IB. Thus started the process of the militarization of the IB. This has continued since then and acquired momentum under President Pervez Musharraf.
Since 1990, there have been allegations that the Political Division of the ISI has been interfering in the conduct of the general elections in order to get candidates critical of the Army defeated through rigging and other means. These allegations gained force under Musharraf. In 2002, he was accused of misusing the ISI for ensuring the victory of the Pakistan Muslim League faction headed by Mr.Shujjat Hussain, which supported him. In the run-up to the elections on February 18,2008, there were similar allegations of the misuse of the ISI by him to influence the results.
De jure, the ISI is supposed to report to the Prime Minister, but de facto it generally reports to the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) and keeps the Prime Minister in the dark about its activities. There were, however, three instances when the heads of the ISI were more loyal to the Prime Minister than to the COAS and this created tensions in the relations between the Prime Minister and the COAS.
The first instance was during the first tenure of Mrs.Benazir Bhutto as Prime Minister (1988 to 1990). To reduce the powers of the ISI, to re-organise the intelligence community and to enhance the powers of the police officers in the IB, she discontinued the practice of appointing a serving Lt.Gen, recommended by the COAS, as the DG, ISI, and, instead appointed Maj.Gen. (retd) Shamsur Rahman Kallue, a retired officer close to her father, as the DG in replacement of Lt.Gen.Hamid Gul in 1989 and entrusted him with the task of winding up the internal intelligence collection role of the ISI and
civilianising the IB and the ISI.
Writing in the "Nation" of July 31,1997, Brig.A.R.Siddiqui, who had served as the Press Relations Officer in the
army headquarters in the 1970s, said that this action of hers marked the beginning of her trouble with Gen.Mirza Aslam Beg, the then COAS, which ultimately led to her dismissal in August,1990. Gen.Beg stopped inviting Kallue to the Corps Commanders conferences and transferred the responsibility for covert action in India from the ISI to the Army intelligence directorate working under the Chief of the General Staff (CGS).
The second instance was during the first tenure of Nawaz Sharif (1990-93) as the Prime Minister. He appointed as the DG,ISI, Lt.Gen.Javed Nasir, a fundamentalist Kashmiri officer, though he was not recommended by Gen.Asif Nawaz Janjua, the then COAS, for the post. This created friction in the relations between Nawaz Sharif and his COAS, who excluded the ISI chief from all important Army conferences.
The third instance was during the second tenure of Nawaz Sharif (1997-99) when his action in appointing Lt.Gen. Ziauddin, an engineer, as the DG,ISI, over-riding the objection of Musharraf led to friction between the two. These instances would show that whenever an elected leadership was in power, the COAS saw to it that the elected Prime Minister did not have effective control over the ISI and that the ISI was marginalised if its head showed any loyalty to the elected Prime Minister.
In the 1990s, there was a controversy in Pakistan as to who really controlled the ISI and when was its internal Political Division set up. Air Marshal (retd) Asghar Khan, former chief of the Pakistan Air Force, filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the legality of the ISI's Political Division accepting a donation of Rs.140 million from a bank for use against PPP candidates during the 1990 elections. Testifying before the Supreme Court on June 16,1997, Gen. (retd) Mirza Aslam Beg claimed that though the ISI was manned by serving military officers and was part of the Ministry of Defence, it reported to the Prime Minister and not to the COAS and that its internal Political Division was actually set up by the late Z.A.Bhutto in 1975.
Many Pakistani analysts challenged this and said that the ISI, though de jure under the Prime Minister, had always been controlled de facto by the COAS and that its internal Political Division had been in existence at least since the days of Ayub Khan, if not earlier.
After the elections of 2002, Musharraf kept the ISI directly under his control and did not allow the elected Prime Minister to have any responsibility for supervising its work.
During the 1980s, the Covert Action Division of the ISI was used by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the US for recruiting, training and arming not only Afghan Mujahideen, but also fundamentalist elements of Pakistan for fighting against the Soviet troops in Afghanistan. The Saudi intelligence agency recruited over 6,000 Arabs in West Asia and North Africa and sent them to the ISI for being trained, armed and infiltrated into Afghanistan. All the funds and arms and ammunition from the CIA and all the funds from the Saudi intelligence for use against the Soviet troops were channelled through the ISI. Among the Arabs brought in and trained were Osama bin Laden and his supporters. The ISI’s links with bin Laden and his operatives thus started from the 1980s with the knowledge and approval of the CIA.
The withdrawal of the Soviet troops from Afghanistan in 1988-89, which was due to the jihad waged by the Afghan Mujahideen, Pakistani jihadis and the Arabs under bin Laden, strengthened the reputation of the ISI. During the same period, the ISI helped DR.A.Q.Khan, the Pakistani nuclear scientist, in the clandestine procurement and transport of nuclear equipment for the Kahuta Uranium Enrichment plant, which enabled Pakistan to acquire a military nuclear capability with the technology given by China and the equipment procured by the ISI. The US closed its eyes to the nuclear procurement activities of the ISI because of the CIA’s dependence on it for the jihad against the Soviet troops.
Differences started appearing between the CIA and the ISI in 1990. These were due to the CIA’s unhappiness over the non-co-operation of the ISI in its efforts to buy back from the Afghan Mujahideen the unused shoulder-fired Stinger missiles supplied to them for use against Soviet aircraft. The CIA’s concerns over the ISI were enhanced by reports of Pakistani assistance to Iran in the nuclear field starting from 1988 and Pakistani contacts with China and North Korea in the nuclear and missile fields.
In 1993, the Clinton Administration forced Nawaz Sharif, the then Prime Minister, to remove from the ISI Lt.Gen. Javed Nasir, the then Director-General, and some of his officers because they were seen as non-cooperative in its efforts to buy back the Stingers. Nasir was a Deobandi fundamentalist, who belonged to the Tablighi Jamaat, a Pakistani organization to preach Islam, which was assisting the jihadi organizations in their recruitment drive in Pakistan and abroad.
In 1994, during the second tenure of Benazir as the Prime Minister, the ISI and Maj.Gen.Naseerullah Babar, her Interior Minister, acted jointly in encouraging the formation of the Taliban in order to restore law and order in Afghanistan, which had collapsed after the Afghan Mujahideen came to power in April,1992. By September,1996, the Taliban, with the ISI’s help, succeeded in capturing power in Kabul and extending its control over all the Pashtun areas.
Initially, the CIA closed its eyes to it because UNOCAL , the US oil company, was interested in the construction of a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan through Afghanistan and was facing difficulty in going ahead with this project due to the break-down of law and order. The US interest in seeking the assistance of the Taliban for the UNOCAL project disappeared after the UNOCAL itself abandoned it as not feasible. In 1996, Osama bin Laden and his advisers shifted from the Sudan to Afghanistan when the Taliban had not yet captured power in Kabul.
After capturing power in Kabul, the Taliban welcomed the presence of bin Laden and encouraged him to shift from Jalalabad to Kandahar. He was permitted to start his training infrastructure in Afghan territory. Alarm bells started ringing in the US over the developing nexus between the Taliban and Al Qaeda, the role played by the ISI in training the Taliban and reports of the resumption of the contacts of bin Laden with his old friends in Pakistan in the ISI as well as in Pakistani fundamentalist organizations.
The US concerns over these developments increased after bin Laden formed in 1998 his International Islamic Front (IIF) For Jihad Against the Crusaders and the Jewish People and Al Qaeda organized explosions near the US Embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam on August 7,1998. The US Cruise missile attacks on Al Qaeda’s training camps in Afghan territory on August 20,1998, were not effective.
From then on, there was increasing pressure by the US on the Government of Nawaz Sharif to either pressure the Taliban to hand over bin Laden to the CIA or to permit the US Special Forces to mount a special operation from Pakistani territory to kill or capture bin Laden. Nawaz did not do either as he was afraid of the repercussions in Pakistan if he collaborated with the US against the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
After overthrowing Nawaz Sharif and seizing power in October, 1999, Musharraf appointed Lt.Gen.Mahmood Ahmed, a close friend of his, as the DG of the ISI. The US was unhappy over what it viewed as non-cooperation by the ISI in its efforts to have bin Laden killed or captured. Before it started its military strikes on the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghan territory on October 7,2001, it pressured Musharraf to replace Lt.Gen.Ahmed as the DG of the ISI. Musharraf appointed Lt.Gen.Ehsan-ul-Haq as the DG. He was succeeded by Lt.Gen.Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani, who has since taken over as the COAS from Musharraf. The present DG is Lt.Gen.Nadeem Taj.
Kiyani tried to keep the ISI out of political controversies. In recent months, it is the IB which is becoming increasingly controversial after Musharraf appointed Brig (retd) Ijaz Shah, a close personal friend of his, as its Director and inducted a number of retired army officers into it. He also placed the IB under the control of Shaukat Aziz, his confidante, who was the then Prime Minister. Before her assassination, Benazir used to complain that the threat to her security mainly came from Ijaz Shah, Lt.Gen.(retd) Hamid Gul and Chaudhury Pervez Elahi, former Chief Minister of Punjab, all the three of them Zia loyalists. She did not make any complaint against the ISI. However, since her assassination, there have been allegations by her party members that junior officials of the ISI might have also been involved in her assassination in addition to those named by her when she was alive. Ijaz Shah resigned after the elections.
The ISI has always had three operational priorities. Firstly, the annexation of Kashmir through covert action; secondly, acquiring a strategic depth in Afghanistan through a Government which would be favourable to Pakistani interests; and thirdly, to help the Government in its clandestine nuclear and missile procurement efforts.
These priorities have not changed. That is why it has refrained from taking action against the Pakistani jihadi organizations, which are active in India and against the Neo Taliban of Afghanistan, which is operating against the US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan from sanctuaries in Balochistan and the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
While pretending to extend unconditional co-operation to the US in its so-called war against terrorism, Musharraf kept the co-operation confined to action against Al Qaeda operatives based in Pakistani territory. Even the co-operation against Al Qaeda is restricted to action against Al Qaeda sleeper cells operating from non-tribal areas. He did not take any effective action against Al Qaeda sanctuaries in the FATA or against the leadership of the Neo Taliban, headed by Mulla Mohammad Omar, its Amir, operating from the tribal areas of Pakistan. Nor did he act against the terrorist infrastructure directed against India.
In December,2003, Musharraf escaped two attempts to assassinate him at Rawalpindi allegedly mounted by Al Qaeda and pro-Al Qaeda elements with the complicity of some junior officers of the Army and the Air Force. The failure of the ISI to detect this conspiracy led to fears that there are elements in the ISI, which are opposed to co-operation with the US even against Al Qaeda.
Dr.Aamir Liaqat Hussain, the then Minister of State for Religious Affairs, gave expression to these fears in an interview to the "Daily Times" of Lahore on May 5, 2005. He warned that Musharraf had a lot of enemies ‘within’ who could make an attempt on his life again at any time. He said that there were certain elements within the forces who could attack the General. He added: “No common people could attack President Musharraf, but certainly there are elements in the forces who can launch yet another attack against him. There is an ISI within the ISI, which is more powerful than the original and still orchestrating many eventualities in the country.” He added that he feared a threat to his own life because he supported Musharraf's call for an enlightened and moderate Islam and had been given the task of preparing the texts of sermons advocating enlightened and moderate Islam to be used at all mosques of the Armed Forces.
The sympathies of many serving and retired officers of the ISI and the Army for Al Qaeda, the Neo Taliban and the Pakistani jihadi organizations and the unwillingness or inability of any Government of Pakistan to act against them are coming in the way of the success of the so-called war against global jihadi terrorism.
Read more...
2.A notification issued before the departure of Prime Minister Yousef Raza Gilani for Washington for talks with President George Bush,said: “In terms of Rule 3(3) of the Rules of Business of 1973, the Prime Minister has approved the placement of the Intelligence Bureau and the Inter-Services Intelligence under the administrative, financial and operational control of the Interior Division with immediate effect.”
3.de jure, the ISI and the IB were working y under the Prime Minister, while the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) was being overseen by the Interior Minister, but de facto, they were reporting to President Pervez Musharraf till the elected Government under Gilani came to office in the last week of March,2008.
4. Since then, the Gilani Government was under pressure from the US to act against what had come to be known as “the ISI within the ISI”----- that is, a group of military officers in the ISI who were allegedly helping the Taliban in Afghanistan and the anti-India jihadi terrorist organizations.
5. In December,2003, Musharraf escaped two attempts to assassinate him at Rawalpindi allegedly mounted by Al Qaeda and pro-Al Qaeda elements with the complicity of some junior officers of the Army and the Air Force. The failure of the ISI to detect this conspiracy led to fears that there are elements in the ISI, which are opposed to co-operation with the US even against Al Qaeda.
6.Dr.Aamir Liaqat Hussain, the then Minister of State for Religious Affairs, gave expression to these fears in an interview to the "Daily Times" of Lahore on May 5, 2005. He warned that Musharraf had a lot of enemies ‘within’ who could make an attempt on his life again at any time. He said that there were certain elements within the forces who could attack the General. He added: “No common people could attack President Musharraf, but certainly there are elements in the forces who can launch yet another attack against him. There is an ISI within the ISI, which is more powerful than the original and still orchestrating many eventualities in the country.” He added that he feared a threat to his own life because he supported Musharraf's call for an enlightened and moderate Islam and had been given the task of preparing the texts of sermons advocating enlightened and moderate Islam to be used at all mosques of the Armed Forces.
7. Fears that this “ISI within the ISI” had become even stronger since then increased after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in the last week of December,2007. Many police officers suspected that it had got her killed with the help of Baitullah Mehsud, the Amir of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), but Baitullah has strongly denied that he had any role in her assassination.
8. According to Pakistani Police sources, they had strong reasons to suspect that this “ISI within the ISI” had organized the unsuccessful attempt to have President Hamid Karzai assassinated in Kabul in the last week of April,2008, and to have the Indian Embassy in Kabul blown up in July,2008.
9. While there has been talk of this ‘ISI within the ISI” since May,2005, nobody has so far been able to identify the officers constituting it. Senior Pakistani Army officers deny its existence and describe the allegations of Dr.Aamir Liaqat Hussain as a figment of his fertile imagination.
10. The transfer of the ISI and the IB to the Interior Ministry was seen by senior Army officers as an attempt by Asif Zardari to make Rehman Malik, his close confidante, who is designated as the Adviser to the Interior Ministry with the status of a Cabinet Minister, the Czar of all intelligence agencies directly reporting to him.
11. The proposed transfer met with a storm of protests from the ISI itself and from the General Headquarters (GHQ) of the Army due to the following reasons:
Senior Army officers were outraged that the Director-General of the ISI, who is a Lt.Gen, should be asked to work under Malik, a retired police officer, who held a post equivalent to the rank of a Major-General when he was in service.
All the papers regarding Pakistan’s clandestine procurement of nuclear and missile technologies from China and missile technology from North Korea are in the ISI. The interrogation of A.Q.Khan, the Pakistani nuclear scientist, in 2004 under US pressure was done by Lt.Gen.Ehsan-ul-Haq, the former DG of the ISI. All the papers relating to L’Affaire A.Q.Khan are in the ISI. In the wake of the recent allegations by A.Q.Khan about Musharraf’s prior knowledge and approval of his dealings with North Korea, the attempt to remove the ISI from the control of the Army was viewed by Musharraf and other senior Army officers as an attempt by the US to get access to these papers through Malik.
Similarly, the proposed transfer of the ISI, which is responsible for covert operations against India and Afghanistan, was viewed by them as an attempt by the US to have access to details of these operations.
12. Following these protests, the Government reversed the notification within 24 hours and restored the status quo ante. The Government issued another notification which said that the earlier notification had been ‘misunderstood’ and that the ISI would “continue to function under the Prime Minister”.“The previous notification only “re-emphasised the need for more coordination between Ministry of Interior and the ISI in relation to the war on terror and internal security.” It said a detailed notification would be issued later to clarify the situation.
13. Annexed is an updated version of article on the ISI, which I had written for an Italian journal in the last week of January,2008. (30-7-08)
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretriat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director,Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com
ANNEXURE
THE INTER-SERVICES INTELLIGENCE OF PAKISTAN
The Intelligence Bureau (IB) of undivided India, which was created by the British colonial rulers, to collect domestic political intelligence was largely a police organization. It had no responsibility for the collection of foreign intelligence.
At the time of the partition of India in 1947, its personnel, assets and records were divided between India and Pakistan. Most of the Muslim police officers serving in the IB of undivided India chose to join the IB of Pakistan. Others stayed behind in the IB of India.
The Government of independent India placed its IB under the control of the Ministry of Home Affairs and expanded its charter to make it responsible for the collection of internal as well as foreign intelligence. This position continued till September 21,1968, when the Government of India bifurcated the IB and converted its foreign intelligence division into an independent organization called the Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW). The R&AW was placed directly under the Prime Minister and was made part of the Cabinet Secretariat, which functions under the Prime Minister.
Like the IB, the R&AW too was initially a largely police organization with a small number of military officers taken on deputation to handle military intelligence. Since then, the predominance of police officers has been reduced and more officers unconnected with the police have been inducted into the R&AW. It is a largely civilian organization with a small number of military officers.
The evolution in Pakistan took a different path. The IB of Pakistan, which is part of the Ministry of the Interior, was initially a largely police organization and was given the responsibility for the collection of internal and external intelligence. However, following complaints from the Army about the poor performance of the IB and its police officers during the first Indo-Pakistan war of 1947-48 over Kashmir, the Government of Pakistan created a new organization called the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate and made it responsible for the collection of foreign intelligence.
The ISI was placed under the control of the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and its personnel were taken from the three wings of the armed forces. It became a military-dominated intelligence agency.
Initially, the ISI had no responsibility for the collection of internal intelligence, which continued to be collected by the police officers of the IB. This position started changing after the Army started meddling in politics in the late 1950s. Field Marshal Ayub Khan ( President during 1958-69), who distrusted the police officers of the IB, made the ISI responsible for the collection of internal intelligence too having a bearing on national security. He also created in the ISI a Covert Action Division to provide assistance to the tribal insurgents in India’s North-East.
The internal intelligence role of the ISI was further strengthened under the late Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto (1971-77) and then under the late Gen.Zia ul Haq (1977-88), who overthrew Bhutto and seized power in 1977. Both Bhutto and Zia used the Political Division of the ISI for the collection of intelligence about their political opponents and the ethnic and linguistic minorities. While the police officers of the IB continued to perform their internal intelligence collection role, the reports of the ISI were given greater credence than those of the IB.
Under Z.A.Bhutto and Zia, the role of the Covert Action Division of the ISI was expanded and strengthened in order to enable it to assist Sikh and Kashmiri separatists in India and radical elements in the Indian Muslim community. The assistance was in the form of funds, training and supply of arms, ammunition and explosives.
Z.A.Bhutto also ordered the creation of a new Division in the ISI to assist the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission in the clandestine procurement of nuclear technology and equipment from abroad. This Division played an active role in helping Pakistan acquire a military nuclear capability.
Thus, when Zia overthrew Bhutto and seized power in 1977, the ISI had three important roles---collection of internal and external intelligence, covert action in India and clandestine procurement of nuclear technology and equipment.
The internal political intelligence Division of the ISI came under considerable criticism after the death of Zia in a plane crash in August,1988. The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) of Mrs.Benazir Bhutto won the elections held thereafter. The ISI, then headed by Lt.Gen.Hamid Gul, strongly opposed her taking over as the Prime Minister. It alleged that she was in touch with India when she was living in political exile in the UK and hence projected her as a security risk.
Under US pressure, the Army and the ISI agreed to her becoming the Prime Minister on condition that she would not have anything to do with the nuclear programme. Even after she had assumed office, the ISI kept disseminating reports alleging that she was an Indian agent. The ISI’s animosity to her increased when she abolished the internal political intelligence Division and ordered the Covert Action Division to stop supporting the Sikh separatists of India. However, she gave it a free hand in J&K.
The ISI’s animosity to her resulted in her dismissal by the then President Ghulam Ishaq Khan in August,1990, and fresh elections. During the elections, the ISI, with money allegedly donated by a private bank, assisted the Pakistan Muslim League (PML) of Mr.Nawaz Sharif and the Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI) in their election campaign and worked against the candidates of the PPP.
The PML and the JEI won the majority of seats. After taking over as the Prime Minister, Nawaz ordered the re-establishment of the internal political intelligence Division of the ISI. He also made Brig.Imtiaz, who used to head the Political Division of the ISI before 1988, the Director of the IB. Thus started the process of the militarization of the IB. This has continued since then and acquired momentum under President Pervez Musharraf.
Since 1990, there have been allegations that the Political Division of the ISI has been interfering in the conduct of the general elections in order to get candidates critical of the Army defeated through rigging and other means. These allegations gained force under Musharraf. In 2002, he was accused of misusing the ISI for ensuring the victory of the Pakistan Muslim League faction headed by Mr.Shujjat Hussain, which supported him. In the run-up to the elections on February 18,2008, there were similar allegations of the misuse of the ISI by him to influence the results.
De jure, the ISI is supposed to report to the Prime Minister, but de facto it generally reports to the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) and keeps the Prime Minister in the dark about its activities. There were, however, three instances when the heads of the ISI were more loyal to the Prime Minister than to the COAS and this created tensions in the relations between the Prime Minister and the COAS.
The first instance was during the first tenure of Mrs.Benazir Bhutto as Prime Minister (1988 to 1990). To reduce the powers of the ISI, to re-organise the intelligence community and to enhance the powers of the police officers in the IB, she discontinued the practice of appointing a serving Lt.Gen, recommended by the COAS, as the DG, ISI, and, instead appointed Maj.Gen. (retd) Shamsur Rahman Kallue, a retired officer close to her father, as the DG in replacement of Lt.Gen.Hamid Gul in 1989 and entrusted him with the task of winding up the internal intelligence collection role of the ISI and
civilianising the IB and the ISI.
Writing in the "Nation" of July 31,1997, Brig.A.R.Siddiqui, who had served as the Press Relations Officer in the
army headquarters in the 1970s, said that this action of hers marked the beginning of her trouble with Gen.Mirza Aslam Beg, the then COAS, which ultimately led to her dismissal in August,1990. Gen.Beg stopped inviting Kallue to the Corps Commanders conferences and transferred the responsibility for covert action in India from the ISI to the Army intelligence directorate working under the Chief of the General Staff (CGS).
The second instance was during the first tenure of Nawaz Sharif (1990-93) as the Prime Minister. He appointed as the DG,ISI, Lt.Gen.Javed Nasir, a fundamentalist Kashmiri officer, though he was not recommended by Gen.Asif Nawaz Janjua, the then COAS, for the post. This created friction in the relations between Nawaz Sharif and his COAS, who excluded the ISI chief from all important Army conferences.
The third instance was during the second tenure of Nawaz Sharif (1997-99) when his action in appointing Lt.Gen. Ziauddin, an engineer, as the DG,ISI, over-riding the objection of Musharraf led to friction between the two. These instances would show that whenever an elected leadership was in power, the COAS saw to it that the elected Prime Minister did not have effective control over the ISI and that the ISI was marginalised if its head showed any loyalty to the elected Prime Minister.
In the 1990s, there was a controversy in Pakistan as to who really controlled the ISI and when was its internal Political Division set up. Air Marshal (retd) Asghar Khan, former chief of the Pakistan Air Force, filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the legality of the ISI's Political Division accepting a donation of Rs.140 million from a bank for use against PPP candidates during the 1990 elections. Testifying before the Supreme Court on June 16,1997, Gen. (retd) Mirza Aslam Beg claimed that though the ISI was manned by serving military officers and was part of the Ministry of Defence, it reported to the Prime Minister and not to the COAS and that its internal Political Division was actually set up by the late Z.A.Bhutto in 1975.
Many Pakistani analysts challenged this and said that the ISI, though de jure under the Prime Minister, had always been controlled de facto by the COAS and that its internal Political Division had been in existence at least since the days of Ayub Khan, if not earlier.
After the elections of 2002, Musharraf kept the ISI directly under his control and did not allow the elected Prime Minister to have any responsibility for supervising its work.
During the 1980s, the Covert Action Division of the ISI was used by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the US for recruiting, training and arming not only Afghan Mujahideen, but also fundamentalist elements of Pakistan for fighting against the Soviet troops in Afghanistan. The Saudi intelligence agency recruited over 6,000 Arabs in West Asia and North Africa and sent them to the ISI for being trained, armed and infiltrated into Afghanistan. All the funds and arms and ammunition from the CIA and all the funds from the Saudi intelligence for use against the Soviet troops were channelled through the ISI. Among the Arabs brought in and trained were Osama bin Laden and his supporters. The ISI’s links with bin Laden and his operatives thus started from the 1980s with the knowledge and approval of the CIA.
The withdrawal of the Soviet troops from Afghanistan in 1988-89, which was due to the jihad waged by the Afghan Mujahideen, Pakistani jihadis and the Arabs under bin Laden, strengthened the reputation of the ISI. During the same period, the ISI helped DR.A.Q.Khan, the Pakistani nuclear scientist, in the clandestine procurement and transport of nuclear equipment for the Kahuta Uranium Enrichment plant, which enabled Pakistan to acquire a military nuclear capability with the technology given by China and the equipment procured by the ISI. The US closed its eyes to the nuclear procurement activities of the ISI because of the CIA’s dependence on it for the jihad against the Soviet troops.
Differences started appearing between the CIA and the ISI in 1990. These were due to the CIA’s unhappiness over the non-co-operation of the ISI in its efforts to buy back from the Afghan Mujahideen the unused shoulder-fired Stinger missiles supplied to them for use against Soviet aircraft. The CIA’s concerns over the ISI were enhanced by reports of Pakistani assistance to Iran in the nuclear field starting from 1988 and Pakistani contacts with China and North Korea in the nuclear and missile fields.
In 1993, the Clinton Administration forced Nawaz Sharif, the then Prime Minister, to remove from the ISI Lt.Gen. Javed Nasir, the then Director-General, and some of his officers because they were seen as non-cooperative in its efforts to buy back the Stingers. Nasir was a Deobandi fundamentalist, who belonged to the Tablighi Jamaat, a Pakistani organization to preach Islam, which was assisting the jihadi organizations in their recruitment drive in Pakistan and abroad.
In 1994, during the second tenure of Benazir as the Prime Minister, the ISI and Maj.Gen.Naseerullah Babar, her Interior Minister, acted jointly in encouraging the formation of the Taliban in order to restore law and order in Afghanistan, which had collapsed after the Afghan Mujahideen came to power in April,1992. By September,1996, the Taliban, with the ISI’s help, succeeded in capturing power in Kabul and extending its control over all the Pashtun areas.
Initially, the CIA closed its eyes to it because UNOCAL , the US oil company, was interested in the construction of a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan through Afghanistan and was facing difficulty in going ahead with this project due to the break-down of law and order. The US interest in seeking the assistance of the Taliban for the UNOCAL project disappeared after the UNOCAL itself abandoned it as not feasible. In 1996, Osama bin Laden and his advisers shifted from the Sudan to Afghanistan when the Taliban had not yet captured power in Kabul.
After capturing power in Kabul, the Taliban welcomed the presence of bin Laden and encouraged him to shift from Jalalabad to Kandahar. He was permitted to start his training infrastructure in Afghan territory. Alarm bells started ringing in the US over the developing nexus between the Taliban and Al Qaeda, the role played by the ISI in training the Taliban and reports of the resumption of the contacts of bin Laden with his old friends in Pakistan in the ISI as well as in Pakistani fundamentalist organizations.
The US concerns over these developments increased after bin Laden formed in 1998 his International Islamic Front (IIF) For Jihad Against the Crusaders and the Jewish People and Al Qaeda organized explosions near the US Embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam on August 7,1998. The US Cruise missile attacks on Al Qaeda’s training camps in Afghan territory on August 20,1998, were not effective.
From then on, there was increasing pressure by the US on the Government of Nawaz Sharif to either pressure the Taliban to hand over bin Laden to the CIA or to permit the US Special Forces to mount a special operation from Pakistani territory to kill or capture bin Laden. Nawaz did not do either as he was afraid of the repercussions in Pakistan if he collaborated with the US against the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
After overthrowing Nawaz Sharif and seizing power in October, 1999, Musharraf appointed Lt.Gen.Mahmood Ahmed, a close friend of his, as the DG of the ISI. The US was unhappy over what it viewed as non-cooperation by the ISI in its efforts to have bin Laden killed or captured. Before it started its military strikes on the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghan territory on October 7,2001, it pressured Musharraf to replace Lt.Gen.Ahmed as the DG of the ISI. Musharraf appointed Lt.Gen.Ehsan-ul-Haq as the DG. He was succeeded by Lt.Gen.Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani, who has since taken over as the COAS from Musharraf. The present DG is Lt.Gen.Nadeem Taj.
Kiyani tried to keep the ISI out of political controversies. In recent months, it is the IB which is becoming increasingly controversial after Musharraf appointed Brig (retd) Ijaz Shah, a close personal friend of his, as its Director and inducted a number of retired army officers into it. He also placed the IB under the control of Shaukat Aziz, his confidante, who was the then Prime Minister. Before her assassination, Benazir used to complain that the threat to her security mainly came from Ijaz Shah, Lt.Gen.(retd) Hamid Gul and Chaudhury Pervez Elahi, former Chief Minister of Punjab, all the three of them Zia loyalists. She did not make any complaint against the ISI. However, since her assassination, there have been allegations by her party members that junior officials of the ISI might have also been involved in her assassination in addition to those named by her when she was alive. Ijaz Shah resigned after the elections.
The ISI has always had three operational priorities. Firstly, the annexation of Kashmir through covert action; secondly, acquiring a strategic depth in Afghanistan through a Government which would be favourable to Pakistani interests; and thirdly, to help the Government in its clandestine nuclear and missile procurement efforts.
These priorities have not changed. That is why it has refrained from taking action against the Pakistani jihadi organizations, which are active in India and against the Neo Taliban of Afghanistan, which is operating against the US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan from sanctuaries in Balochistan and the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
While pretending to extend unconditional co-operation to the US in its so-called war against terrorism, Musharraf kept the co-operation confined to action against Al Qaeda operatives based in Pakistani territory. Even the co-operation against Al Qaeda is restricted to action against Al Qaeda sleeper cells operating from non-tribal areas. He did not take any effective action against Al Qaeda sanctuaries in the FATA or against the leadership of the Neo Taliban, headed by Mulla Mohammad Omar, its Amir, operating from the tribal areas of Pakistan. Nor did he act against the terrorist infrastructure directed against India.
In December,2003, Musharraf escaped two attempts to assassinate him at Rawalpindi allegedly mounted by Al Qaeda and pro-Al Qaeda elements with the complicity of some junior officers of the Army and the Air Force. The failure of the ISI to detect this conspiracy led to fears that there are elements in the ISI, which are opposed to co-operation with the US even against Al Qaeda.
Dr.Aamir Liaqat Hussain, the then Minister of State for Religious Affairs, gave expression to these fears in an interview to the "Daily Times" of Lahore on May 5, 2005. He warned that Musharraf had a lot of enemies ‘within’ who could make an attempt on his life again at any time. He said that there were certain elements within the forces who could attack the General. He added: “No common people could attack President Musharraf, but certainly there are elements in the forces who can launch yet another attack against him. There is an ISI within the ISI, which is more powerful than the original and still orchestrating many eventualities in the country.” He added that he feared a threat to his own life because he supported Musharraf's call for an enlightened and moderate Islam and had been given the task of preparing the texts of sermons advocating enlightened and moderate Islam to be used at all mosques of the Armed Forces.
The sympathies of many serving and retired officers of the ISI and the Army for Al Qaeda, the Neo Taliban and the Pakistani jihadi organizations and the unwillingness or inability of any Government of Pakistan to act against them are coming in the way of the success of the so-called war against global jihadi terrorism.
Read more...
Sunday, 15 June 2008
Nawaz Sharif: A History of Ingratitude
Nawaz Sharif: A History of Ingratitude
Mr. Sharif is not as innocent as he portrayed himself to be. If Mr. Sharif wants accountability, let’s open all the books.
By MIRZA ROHAIL BAIG
WWW.AHMEDQURAISHI.COM
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—If you are one of the Pakistanis who applauded former prime Nawaz Sharif when he addressed a crowd of deranged lawyers and paid hungry supporters – who turned the most expensive piece of property in the heart of Pakistan’s federal capital into an open air toilet last night, then you should know that Mr. Sharif is not as innocent as he portrayed himself to be.
This is a guy who went shopping in Washington DC for a U.S. $ 25,000 watch as brave Pakistanis died fighting for their honor in Kargil, a battle that Mr. Sharif ensured we lost because he was busy in a personal fight with the nation’s military leaders.
Mr. Nawaz Sharif’s record is so embarrassing that, in another country with educated voters, he would never be reelected by the people.
His record includes unforgettable lapses and mistakes, each of them worthy of an inquiry commission that could disqualify him for life:
1. This man declared emergency after the May 1998 Nuclear detonations. Under the pretext of sanctions, he swallowed up the nation’s $10 billion foreign reserves. No questions asked and no accountability since!
2. This man, Nawaz, siphoned off millions of dollars of the money collected under the ‘Qarz utaro mulk sanwaro’ scheme where he appealed to the Pakistani nation’s patriotism and asked everyone to donate money to pay off the national debt. No accountability so far!
3. This man was shopping for $25,000 Philip Patek watches in the United States when our brave soldiers were dying in Kargil. No shame!
4. This man built a 2000-acre Raiwind palatial complex for himself and his family when our nation was contributing to the "Qarz utaro mulk sanwaro" scheme to pay off the national debt.
5. This man Nawaz is a PROTEGE of past military rulers who turned him from a dumb, Nehari-loving imbecile into a leader. General Imtiaz brought him from Dubai. General Jillani and General Zia-ul-Haq groomed him. Lt. Gen. Hameed Gul created for his an entire new political party, the IJI. Today he makes fun of the military. It says something about his character. He is an ungrateful person, someone we call EHSAAN FARAMOOSH in our language!
6. He is the first ruler in the history of Pakistan and maybe the world who ransacked the Supreme Court building and unleashed the private armed thugs on Shahbaz Sharif’s payroll as a private Sharif Militia and used them to stone the building of the Supreme Court and chase out its judges who dared to challenge his actions in 1997.
7. More than 80 complaints of corruption and misuse of authority were pending at different stages of inquiry, investigation and trial against former PM Nawaz Sharif when he was granted pardon by the president and went into a self-chosen exile. The complaint said Nawaz Sharif did not mention in his declaration of assets in the nomination form for NA-12 in 1997 that he owned a helicopter. It was alleged that he did not pay duties of Rs. 30 million on this machine. Don’t take my word for it, check this news story: http://www.millat.com/ghalibcom/events/nawaz%20exile/80_cases_pending_against_nawaz_b.htm
8. According to a report:
8.1 Rs. 1.5 billion loan was taken out by the Sharif brothers against the security of their company, Ittefaq Foundries
8.2 Rs. 302 million were obtained for Brothers Sugar Mills
8.3 Rs. 92 million for Brothers Textile
8.4 Rs. 392 million for Brothers Steel Mills
8.5 Rs. 102 million for Ramzan Sugar Mills and Khalid Siraj Textiles each
8.6 Rs. 385 million for Ittefaq Sugar Mills
8.7 Rs. 368 million for Ittefaq Textiles and
8.8 Rs. 239 million were loaned to Ittefaq Brother.
9. The Nawaz family which is now one of the richest in the country largely due to the largesse of Pakistani banks has unveiled its one billion rupee Raiwind Complex. Spread over an area of around a thousand acres it houses palatial residences, a 300 acre farm, a 500 bed hospital, a school, a medical teaching facility, 200 acre dairy farm, a 350 line telephone exchange, Polytechnic institute, Nursing and Midwifery school etc. The Sharifs who must really be minting money have built it all in 17 months at a cost of Rs 740 million. The Punjab government headed by a Sharif has chipped in by providing government-funded roads and forcibly purchasing land for papa Sharif. http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/2423/20.html
10. Nawaz is currently Pakistan’s 4th RICHEST MAN in the list ‘Top 40 Richest Pakistanis’.
Finally, when Nawaz’s son was suspected of having blood cancer and needed treatment in London, Pervez Musharraf violated his own 10-year agreement with the Saudis and ordered the Pakistani Embassy in Riyadh to provide the Sharifs with passports on humanitarian grounds.
Musharraf again put the exile agreement aside and helped Shahbaz Sharif get treatment in New York.
In comparison, Mr. Nawaz Sharif could have shown magnanimity and rise above petty revenge and address the real issues facing Pakistan, internally and in the region.
Mr. Baig is a Pakistani commentator. He can be reached at opinion786@yahoo.com
Read more...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
