Pakistan spy agency dissolves its 'political wing'
The unit has been linked to rigged elections and intimidation of opponents. Some commentators are skeptical that the move means real change.
Reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan — Pakistan's powerful spy agency, the Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence, has quietly shut down a unit that for decades spied on domestic politicians and exerted shadowy influence in affairs of state.
Analysts described the decision to deactivate the ISI's "political wing" as the latest in a series of steps meant to separate the army and the security apparatus from domestic politics -- and also to rehabilitate the spy agency's battered public image.
The ISI, which nurtured the Taliban movement in the 1990s, has been dogged by allegations that elements within the agency are acting in concert with Islamic militant groups. Those tensions came to a head earlier this year when U.S. intelligence officials confronted Pakistan's new civilian government with evidence of ISI complicity in militant activities, including the July bombing of the Indian Embassy in Afghanistan, and demanded agency reforms.
At the height of its powers, the ISI's secretive political wing rigged national elections and arrested and intimidated domestic opponents, according to public accounts provided by some retired ISI officials.
At times, the wing acted at the behest of elected governments. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the country's first popularly elected prime minister, who was deposed and hanged by the military in the late 1970s, was the first to make active use of it. But it also was accused of working to destabilize several administrations, particularly civilian ones. The wing was alleged to have arranged massive vote-rigging in a 2002 election that tightened then-military leader Gen. Pervez Musharraf's grip on power.
Pakistan has spent more than half its 61-year history under military rule, most recently under Musharraf, who until late 2007 served as both president and head of the army. He was forced to step down as president in August under threat of impeachment.
Word of the wing's dissolution first emerged in Pakistani news reports over the weekend, subsequently confirmed by government officials. Few details were disclosed, including when the action was taken and whether the decision originated with the civilian government or within the ISI itself.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said in a statement that the move would free the spy agency to concentrate on containing a burgeoning Islamic insurgency based in Pakistan's tribal areas along the Afghan border.
