The Verdict
Who is the ISI reporting to?

Who is the ISI reporting to?

The ISI is not the head of the Evil League of Evil; everything it does is with the express consent of the army.

Nadir Hassan January 06, 2012

You know the game is up when even Asma Jahangir walks off in a huff with the ball mid-match. The indefatigable human-rights lawyer threw a tantrum after the Supreme Court decided that the charges against her client, Husain Haqqani, in the Memogate casewarranted investigation by a commission.

Jahangir decided she could no longer represent Haqqani after accusing the judiciary of working in league with the 'establishment', a term that means 'everyone I disagree with in Pakistan'. In this case, she seemed to be referring to the ISI.

Earlier, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani more or less admitted that he had no control over the ISI after it was revealed that spy chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha had met Mansoor Ijaz in London to investigate the Memogate charges without actually seeking permission from the PM.

Whether it’s the civilian government at home or foreign governments abroad, there is nothing they enjoy more than deflecting blame towards the ISI. If everything we have heard about them is true, the ISI is the head of the Evil League of Evil, an organization so nefarious that everything wrong in the country can be blamed on them.

But is there any truth to the claim that the ISI is a rogue operation that submits to no authority?

Not quite.

Yes, the ISI is responsible for rigging elections, training militants and generally making a nuisance of themselves but to call it an unaccountable organisation allows responsibility to shift away from the army.

The fact is that the ISI is not a rogue group; everything it does is with the express consent of the army. Blaming one part of the military apparatus, rather than the whole, gives the army a free pass for its many strategic and moral failings, from the folly of its Afghanistan policy to the mass abductions of citizens for no discernible reason. It is for that very reason that the army itself quietly promotes the myth of the ISI as a process-free organization that no one has a grip on.

The problem is not just that Pasha was carrying out an investigation behind the prime minister’s back. What is really worrying is that Pasha would not have done so without army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani’s, and as a result the entire military’s, blessing.

Holding the ISI solely responsible is like blaming your death on cancer rather than the tens of thousands of cigarettes you smoked all your life. The ISI is merely the natural result of the military’s dominance over the country. Once the civil-military imbalance is redressed, the ISI problem goes away.

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WRITTEN BY:
Nadir Hassan An Islamabad based journalist who tweets at @Nadir_Hassan.

The views expressed by the writer and the reader comments do not necassarily reflect the views and policies of the Express Tribune.

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COMMENTS (32)

Vikram | 12 years ago | Reply @Shah Mohammad: How can you trust some one like ISI when you even don't know what they do? What was the name of that Pakistani journalist who was murdered after recieving threats from ISI? What right ISI has to threaten Pakistan citizens to be quiet or else. I remember reading a news about how Pakistani government managed to kill some militants before Pakistan's prime minister's visit to USA. US intelligence agencies recorded a call made by some one from Pakistan government to the leader of the camp that we are going to bomb the camp, get every one important out of the camp. Camp was bombed and some low level miltants were killed just to show that Pakistan was fighting terrorism. ISI and Pakistani army is playing Bangladesh with Baloch people. Many young Baloch are being eliminated. How can you support this kind of action by your so called intelligent agency? They kill people like rangers killed an innocent boy in Karachi, the only difference is you don't see it on TV and no one can question them.

Tahir | 12 years ago | Reply @Noise: Why are you spitting venom against the Armed Forces? You could have made your point without becoming overly emotional and irrational!

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Mustafa Moiz | 12 years ago | Reply If the ISI and the military are not under the control of the civilian government that is only good for Pakistan.

Tahir | 12 years ago | Reply What a classic referendum-type question you have posed at the end of your trash piece! Let me pose another question to you:- "Do you feel that the Civilian Govt (US Govt) has control over CIA?" The extent of control US Govt enjoys over CIA should be equivalent to Pak Govt enjoying over ISI! Now, blame your US Masters before you blame someone in Pakistan. Stooges like you are ruining this Nation. Just to put you at ease I ain't favouring Army Govt in Pakistan either. Further, I would just like to comment on a couple of issues:- What do you mean when you say, ".......and as a result entire military’s, blessing."? Are you trying to implicate rank and files of complete armed forces? Just see how would your text read if you replace "ISI" with your Master's spy agency "CIA" and its Govt in following text:- "Yes, the CIA is responsible for ......., training militants and generally making a nuisance of themselves but to call it an unaccountable organisation allows responsibility to shift away from the US Govt. and.... "Blaming one part of the military apparatus, rather than the whole, gives the US Govt a free pass for its many strategic and moral failings, from the folly of its Afghanistan policy to the mass abductions of citizens for no discernible reason e.g. in Guantanamo Bay!.

Noise | 12 years ago | Reply Are your people stupid? Do you have any idea how the world works? Are you all children? You cannot have an agency is not not answerable to the representatives of the people. If we have a real democratic society then if enough people think that Rehman Malik or Firdous Ashiq Awan arent doing good job they can vote for someone else in the next election and boot them out, which is what happened to BJP in the last Indian election. (Good work India). But if you have an agency that is not answerable to a leadership which depends on public approval then it will boss everyone around without caring for any consequences. I'd rather trust a politician who depends on the vote of the people rather than an army chief who acts like a king-maker. I know I have at least a minute level of control on that politician since he needs my vote but I have no control over the man in uniform because the power of my vote is useless before him. Because in making himself the boss of the politicians the man in uniform has put himself beyond the power of my vote, beyond my reach, beyond any sort of accountability. We citizens have a working relationship with the politicians, incompetent though they may be, they need our approval. Maybe their incompetence is a reflection of our incompetence as a nation. The military is not run my robots programmed for honesty & maximum efficiency. It is staffed by fallible people like us. Just like we civilians need to be held accountable to law, so do the military, and since the military is run by the money they take from my income they need need to bring themselves under the power of my vote. They may have convinced you children to trust them. They may have duped you lot into always assuming that military is not selfish and they they are working toward a greater good. Teaching you to put your trust in them like children trust their elders, thinking they will be there to protect them. But a man trusts no one, especially not someone who isnt within his reach.

u_too | 12 years ago | Reply PPP aur soja

Baba Ji | 12 years ago | Reply all anti ISI here ... you want them to report to Rehman Malik ? or maybe Firdous Ashiq Awan ... have a heart guys ... let some sanity prevail whatever is left if there is any !!!!

vasan | 12 years ago | Reply Alicia : OBL was a "Pakistani establishment's" guest. How can u treat OBL as a threat. "@Salman What about ghulam nabi fai and Ajmal Kasab?" Deafening silence will be the answer.

Kulamarva Balakrishna | 12 years ago | Reply Vienna,January 7,2012 The authority over ISI has been and continues to be with the Army Chief of Staff. It was transfered to the civilian authority but the CoAS countermanded it.That resulted in the memogate episode.We witness the Supre Court of Pakistan obeying the authority of CoAS. Taravadu Taranga Trust for Media Monitoring TTTMM India --Kulamarva Balakrishna

alicia | 12 years ago | Reply @Salman What about ghulam nabi fai and Ajmal Kasab?

alicia | 12 years ago | Reply @Ahmad Mirza If the ISI was doing their job and looking after internal threats than OBL incident and Mehran base incident would've never happened. How come the only time they see internal threats is when its got to do with a civilian government?

Shah Mohammad | 12 years ago | Reply I trust ISI and I will never trust Zardari and his PPP.

PeacefullMuslim | 12 years ago | Reply If politicians do their jobs sincerely, ISI won't go behind them and Army Don't need to takeover.......!!! so... untill we cannot choose correct leaders, we cannot cnage system metrix...

Khan Jr | 12 years ago | Reply Nadir Hassan, I suppose it can be most pleasurable at times to spin words around for the fun of it, but suggesting that the ‘establishment’ [is] a term that means ‘everyone I disagree with in Pakistan’, is stretching credulity far too far. For your next piece I suggest you try defining the words 'national security'. It might prove to be an interesting and valuable exercise.

Parvez | 12 years ago | Reply From your write up the question that logically follows is : Who does Kayani report to ???

Proud Pakistani | 12 years ago | Reply Fact of the matter is, ISI is responsible for the security of nearly 13 royal families worldwide, has a substantial presence of agents in key countries and most of the operations in Arab countries are taken with the consent of ISI. And i got this from a senior official in Saudi government. Such agencies have a right to feel very important and you can't blame them for that,

syed | 12 years ago | Reply @Zaid Hamid: and under the guise of defending they have destroyed the country by destroying its democracy, its civic institutions and the freedom of press.....we may be slaves of america but we are equally slaves of the ISI.....if we don't learn to place trust in our civic and judicial institutions we cannot prosper as a nation....ISI needs to be working externally not internally....if it works internally and persecutes its own citizens, then we are no different from Nazi germany, Stalin's Russia or Mussolini's Italy.....power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.....in the absebce of strong civic institutions, ISI has abused the money, guns and immunity they have to take over the running of the country......whatever they do is without accountability, without anybody knowing about it and unlike the politicians we don't have the power to vote them out.....

Moise | 12 years ago | Reply First of all ISI cannot report to politicians since not only Banana Republic politician's loyalty is questionable but they have hard time keeping mouth close in front of news paper and diplomats. For solely this reason I don't see anyone in their right mind report to politicians and jeopardize national security.

Raja Islam | 12 years ago | Reply @Salman: That does not necessarily mean that they are doing a good job. This is like saying a gang of bank robbers is doing a great job because they never got caught.

Salman | 12 years ago | Reply Dear Talha, ISI is doing so much for the nation U cant even Imagine that A little Example is that no body ever caught any ISI agent during Operation And NO BODY means NO BODY

Umr | 12 years ago | Reply @Talha When does the good ever become news ?

Ahmad Mirza | 12 years ago | Reply @Talha: I am not a big Fan of Army myself Talha; i am always criticising them for their unnatural superior behaviour but ISI is your first line of defence and right after Kiani took over they are taking their job back of being aware of external threats to Pakistan; they took their eyes off of internal threats and immediately you see Memogate Scandal; now tell me what would you do when our OWN people are trying to sell our Country? Then shouldnt ISI step in and take matters in their own hands; they are obviously answerable to someone; they have accepted the supremacy of the Supreme court; this is the only reason that Supreme Court has someone in the form of ISI to implement their decisions.

sardar | 12 years ago | Reply i wish i was an ISI chief to show these writers what an "EVIL" really means.....

Naushaba | 12 years ago | Reply ISI is the 4000 thousand cigarettes and also the cancer

Talha | 12 years ago | Reply @Sarah Khan: Please name me one good thing that ISI has done for this country. Something with a refrence please, not what you heard or what your uncle told you.

vasan | 12 years ago | Reply Khurram : It is better to know the facts behind OBL' residency in Pakistan too.

Khurram | 12 years ago | Reply the problem here is the genuineness of memo not the role of ISI. whatever ISI doing is in the larger interest of Pakistan i.e. to know the facts behind mamogate scandle.

Sarah Khan | 12 years ago | Reply If ISI starts reporting to civilian govt. then ISI will be another PIA, Railway, Steel Mill or any other corrupt and incompetent department. Which will be disastrous for Pak.

LMFAO | 12 years ago | Reply ISI is like the Chuck Norris of all agencies, everything and anything, possible or impossible is attributed to this organisation.

Salman Latif | 12 years ago | Reply ISI adheres to the deluded notion that army has fed itself, and naturally ISI too, over the years: that nothing is more 'sacred' than guarding the country and that in achieving this end, all means are justified. What's ironic is that they never realized how best to 'guard' this country and have nearly always ended up causing it irreparable damage.

Usman | 12 years ago | Reply bANG ON!

Zaid Hamid | 12 years ago | Reply ISI reports to none... they are here to defend... Thats it end of discussion...

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