War On Terror Enters Final And Decisive Phase
Muhammad Khurshid
September 18, 2008
War on terror launched by the United States some seven years has entered its final and decisive phase as a final and decisive operation has been launched by security forces of both the United States and Pakistan in tribal areas situated on Pak-Afghan border. Pakistani security forces have been conducting operation in Bajaur Agency while the American drones have been hitting targets in Waziristan tribal region. So far thousands of people were either killed or maimed in the fighting in Bajaur Agency. According to reports, majority of the victims are civilians mostly women and children.
Pakistan has also been facing immence pressure from the United States to reform its intelligence agency, which is bieng accused of breeding terrorism. According to a newspaper comment, the US assistant secretary of state, Richard Boucher, has said in an interview that the problem posed by Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) had become so acute that the new government in Islamabad was likely to act on this issue – something which he said did not happen under Pervez Musharraf. He was referring to the relationship that Washington is convinced exists between the Taliban and Pakistani intelligence outfits. Mr Boucher, who will be leaving office with the Bush administration at the end of the year, in his unusually candid remarks, also stated he saw no sign as yet of reform within the ISI, while stressing that this was badly needed.
The issue of the giant intelligence agency, which has developed into a monster that seems at times to overshadow the state itself and fall quite outside its control, is one the Pakistan government will, sooner or later, need to confront. So far, it seems to have played the part of an ostrich, burying its head in the sand rather than facing up to the problem. The prime minister, confronted during his US visit with irrefutable evidence of the dangerous links between the ISI and key militants, on his return to the country blithely denied there was any big problem. Of course, the government, like other civilian set-ups, has some reason for its apparent state of paralysis as far as the ISI goes. Many believe the organization is indeed more powerful than people sitting in cabinet, or holding other offices of power. There is doubt over whom, if anyone at all, controls this entity. Two years ago, a court in Sindh was told the ISI fell neither under the command of the ministry of interior nor the ministry of defence. Certainly, the body itself has reared up its head when any effort has been made to rein it in, with ISI officials quite evidently infuriated over the questioning by the Supreme Court under deposed Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, which had summoned them in the case involving missing persons.
Since it was expanded and strengthened in the 1960s, in the aftermath of the 1965 India-Pakistan war, the ISI has continued to grow stronger decade through decade. This was most marked during the era of the late General Ziaul Haq, who patronized it and facilitated its growth to meet its own ends. Cutting down to size such an organism, with spores in every sector of society, is a challenging task. The government's failed attempt to place it under the interior ministry a few months ago showed just how problematic it can be. But, if militancy is to be defeated and Pakistan rescued from the stranglehold of dark elements determined to stifle democracy within it, this task will have to be undertaken with the government and the military combining forces. This is necessary in order to usher in the changes so urgently needed so that the ISI can once more serve the government rather than act independently in a manner that often hurts the state.
The End
Pakistan has also been facing immence pressure from the United States to reform its intelligence agency, which is bieng accused of breeding terrorism. According to a newspaper comment, the US assistant secretary of state, Richard Boucher, has said in an interview that the problem posed by Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) had become so acute that the new government in Islamabad was likely to act on this issue – something which he said did not happen under Pervez Musharraf. He was referring to the relationship that Washington is convinced exists between the Taliban and Pakistani intelligence outfits. Mr Boucher, who will be leaving office with the Bush administration at the end of the year, in his unusually candid remarks, also stated he saw no sign as yet of reform within the ISI, while stressing that this was badly needed.
The issue of the giant intelligence agency, which has developed into a monster that seems at times to overshadow the state itself and fall quite outside its control, is one the Pakistan government will, sooner or later, need to confront. So far, it seems to have played the part of an ostrich, burying its head in the sand rather than facing up to the problem. The prime minister, confronted during his US visit with irrefutable evidence of the dangerous links between the ISI and key militants, on his return to the country blithely denied there was any big problem. Of course, the government, like other civilian set-ups, has some reason for its apparent state of paralysis as far as the ISI goes. Many believe the organization is indeed more powerful than people sitting in cabinet, or holding other offices of power. There is doubt over whom, if anyone at all, controls this entity. Two years ago, a court in Sindh was told the ISI fell neither under the command of the ministry of interior nor the ministry of defence. Certainly, the body itself has reared up its head when any effort has been made to rein it in, with ISI officials quite evidently infuriated over the questioning by the Supreme Court under deposed Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, which had summoned them in the case involving missing persons.
Since it was expanded and strengthened in the 1960s, in the aftermath of the 1965 India-Pakistan war, the ISI has continued to grow stronger decade through decade. This was most marked during the era of the late General Ziaul Haq, who patronized it and facilitated its growth to meet its own ends. Cutting down to size such an organism, with spores in every sector of society, is a challenging task. The government's failed attempt to place it under the interior ministry a few months ago showed just how problematic it can be. But, if militancy is to be defeated and Pakistan rescued from the stranglehold of dark elements determined to stifle democracy within it, this task will have to be undertaken with the government and the military combining forces. This is necessary in order to usher in the changes so urgently needed so that the ISI can once more serve the government rather than act independently in a manner that often hurts the state.
The End
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