ISI's Islamist sympathies

Recently, The New York Times revealed that US intelligence officials had concluded that Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency was responsible for the July 7 bomb attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul, which killed more than 60 people. As a result, Pakistan's new prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, finds himself in a tight spot. While angrily dismissing accusations of the ISI's involvement, Gilani has vowed to act decisively should he be presented with evidence to the contrary. Gilani's indignation aside, the ISI has long been alleged to support Islamic militants. Daniel Pearl's assassin, Omar Sheikh, is said to have had ties with the agency. India charges that the ISI supports insurgents in disputed Kashmir and terrorists in India proper. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has openly accused the ISI of backing terrorists in Afghanistan, including those who bombed the Indian embassy.

The problem of the ISI's Islamist sympathies must be viewed in terms of a larger religio-cultural tyranny imposed on Pakistan by the late president, General Muhammad Zia ul-Haq (1977-1988), and followed to some degree by his successors. Zia's Islamization program not only disenfranchised women, non-Muslims, and Ahmadis, it also marginalized Shiites. Ironically, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, was a Shiite. (The prominent Bhutto family is also of Shiite origin.) Whereas the secular Jinnah envisaged Pakistan as a country grouping together the culturally similar Muslims of the Indian subcontinent, Zia turned Pakistan into an Islamic state run according to Islamic law.

Admittedly, the Islamization drive began under Zia's predecessor, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who served as president from 1971 to 1973, and prime minister from 1973 until his ouster by Zia in 1977. Even though Bhutto (father of Benazir Bhutto) was known for his liberal views, he ended up succumbing to the pressures of conservative Islamic elements. Islam made great inroads into politics after the Indo-Pakistani war of 1971, during which Pakistan tried unsuccessfully to prevent East Pakistan from seceding and constituting itself as Bangladesh. India entered the war on the side of the Bangladeshis and routed the Pakistan Army. In 1973, Bhutto amended Pakistan's Constitution to declare the country an Islamic Republic. An amendment to the constitution in 1974 shockingly declared the Ahmadis, a heterodox Muslim minority, to be non-Muslim.

Yet it was under Zia, who seized power from Bhutto in a 1977 coup and had him executed two years later, that Islamization got fully under way. In line with the fundamentalist strain of Islam that holds sway in Saudi Arabia, education was radically redesigned and culture brought under the watchful eye of the state. The law was also drastically changed: Islamic law was extended to replace much of the legal system Pakistan had inherited from the British colonial administration. Outrageously, a new adultery ordinance came to be used to convict countless female victims of rape and acquit their attackers, as the victim could rarely produce four adult Muslim witnesses in her defense. Meanwhile, controversial blasphemy laws made it almost impossible for non-Muslims to profess their faith without appearing to "disrespect" Islam, while Ahmadis were now prohibited by law from designating themselves as Muslims.

One of the most important changes to take place during this period was the Islamization of the Pakistan Army's ideology. From being a primarily Muslim organization sworn to defend the borders of a primarily Muslim country, the army became an Islamic institution and the guardian of an Islamic state. Both Ahmadis and non-Muslims were sidelined, and the contributions of several non-Muslim heroes of former wars were no longer mentioned in official histories of Pakistan.

The ISI emerged as a heavily ideological institution dedicated more to fighting Islam's foes than ensuring Pakistan's security. Aiding Afghan rebels during the Soviet Union's occupation of Afghanistan (1979-1989) could have been viewed as a Pakistani national security imperative, but was often couched in Islamic terms as a jihad against infidels. During this time, the US paid little attention to the worldview of its Pakistani allies. This was a mistake. The ISI played a decisive role in determining which Afghan rebel groups received American and Saudi aid. According to the late Ahmad Shad Massoud, the famed Afghan rebel leader assassinated by Al-Qaeda, the ISI ensured that the bulk of aid went to groups - such as that led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar - that shared its ideological leanings.

When the Soviets withdrew in 1989, the ISI's role expanded. A new group called the Taliban emerged out of Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan. The Taliban, or "students," were indoctrinated by Pakistani mullahs into Islamic fundamentalism, and by the ISI into fighting. When they entered Afghanistan in the mid-1990s, they quickly overran the other groups and instituted a nightmarish Islamic state supported by Pakistan.

Therefore, even though Zia has died in an air crash in 1988, the changes he set in motion continue to bedevil Pakistan and the region. Rarely have Zia's successors had the courage to overturn his discriminatory laws. For example, Benazir Bhutto did not repeal the infamous adultery ordinance during her two terms as prime minister. It was not before 2006, when President Pervez Musharraf was pressured by the US to do so, that the law was repealed. Bhutto also supported the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan during her second term as prime minister (1993-1996), overlooking their atrocities in favor of the stability they could provide.

As for the ISI, it held fast to militant Islam. When the 9/11 attacks occurred, the chief of the ISI was Mahmoud Ahmad, a Taliban sympathizer. He opposed the US invasion of Afghanistan and was removed from his post. Another former ISI chief, Hamid Gul, openly supports Osama bin Laden and rejects charges that the Al-Qaeda leader is a terrorist. Gul led the ISI from 1987 until 1989.

Although the current head of the ISI, Nadim Taj, is not known as an extremist, Zia's indoctrination of the ISI and the army cannot be erased by shuffling a few individuals around. Taj is seen as a Musharraf loyalist and has resisted Gilani's efforts to bring the ISI - often considered a "state within a state" - under civilian control. Musharraf's resignation this week was a boon to the prime minister, but he still has much work to do if he is serious about reforming the ISI and strengthening Pakistani democracy.

Ultimately, the overriding objective of the Pakistani armed forces, including the ISI, must be made the protection of Pakistan's citizens and its borders, not the pursuit of jihad. And if Pakistan's democracy is to be genuine, all the discriminatory laws Zia promulgated must be repealed and the educational curricula in schools overhauled.



Hopeful for positive change!!!

I hope the USA will continue to play an active role as partner in the region. Not just as to Pakistan but india as well and all of the neighbouring countries.
Without that I would fear for the stability of the region.