Frontline Pakistan : The Struggle With Militant Islam - Arz-e-Pak

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Pakistan’s
unholy allianCe
the militants
and the military
t he heavily guarded, high-walled concrete structure right in the heart
of Islamabad has no signboard. But everyone in the capital knows
that the sprawling compound surrounded by barbed wire houses the
Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The spy agency has
been the country’s big brother. It is powerful, ubiquitous and has
functioned with so much autonomy from the central government that
it has almost become a state within a state. It is not only responsible
for intelligence gathering, but also acts as a determinant of Pakistan’s
foreign policy and a vehicle for its implementation. For every civilian
and military government, control of the ISI was seen as crucial to
maintaining a firm grip on power. The agency had been so powerful
for so long that it played by its own rules. Its various heads had
contrasting profiles, but emerged among the most powerful figures
in the country’s establishment. For years they ran semi-independent
operations in Afghanistan and Kashmir and helped to form and topple
civilian governments.
For more than two decades the ISI had sponsored Islamic militancy
to carry out its secret wars. It was a crucial partner in the CIA’s biggest
covert operation ever, one that forced the Soviet Union to pull out
of Afghanistan and served as a catalyst to the disintegration of the