Army and the intelligence agencies have always shaped the political process in Pakistan and things won't be any different after the 2007 general election ---- President Pervez Musharraf is all set for his re-election in 2007. He has already declared his intention to be re-elected by the present set of elected representatives. He has left no one in doubt that he will remain the Chief of Army Staff. He has also set the political process in motion. Parties are now busy searching for funds, supporters and alliances. A Charter of Democracy is out. <br /> <br /> Former premiers, Nawaz Sharief and Benazir Bhutto, are making noises from the safety of London and Dubai. The religious parties like the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal are busy jockeying for a centrist position, liaisoning with the military as well as other political parties to retain their hold on the political scene. <br /> <br /> These are visible signs. What is, however, not so visible, and will not be, is the role played by the Army and the intelligence agencies in shaping and running the political process in Pakistan. <br /> <br /> The three intelligence agencies in Pakistan are: Military Intelligence, the Intelligence Bureau and the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate. It is the third agency, known as the ISI, which has played a key role in the political life of Pakistan. The ISI, often called the state within a state, is staffed by officers selected from the Pakistan Army. The lower staff, source of radicalism in the agency, is drawn from the police and independent recruitment. During President Zia-ul Haq's tenure, a number of ISI officers were drawn from madarsa alumni. <br /> <br /> Set up in 1948 with the primary objective of gathering external intelligence, the agency saw a rapid rise in its influence, both within and outside the country, during the Zia regime when it was roped in to orchestrate the Afghan jihad along with the CIA and other Western intelligence agencies by the US. Besides becoming a covert arm of the state to subjugate political, ethnic, linguistic, sectarian and religious dissent, the agency became an effective weapon for the US in the Cold War's final climax in Afghanistan, and in the process, substantially radicalised because of its close alliance with religious fundamentalist groups in Pakistan, Afghanistan and West Asia. <br /> <br /> Today, purged of radical elements to some extent, the agency is working closely with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the CIA in hunting down Al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists. Although this reversal of roles is not reflected in its activities when it comes to jihadi groups operating in Kashmir and other parts of India. Almost all the terrorist groups targeting India have the patronage of the ISI. Several of these groups were, in fact, created by the ISI. <br /> <br /> What is more relevant to look here is the ISI's involvement in Pakistan's politics and its possible role in the 2007 election. An early and telling instance of the ISI's manipulation of political situated in Pakistan was documented in the late 1960s when violent religious demonstrations were orchestrated through out the country on the issue of a book written by a Jewish author of Indian descent which reportedly denigrated the Prophet. <br /> <br /> The ISI was working on the orders of General Yahya Khan to create a religious opposition to Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's political aspirations. But it was Zia-ul Haq who used the ISI to manipulate the political system effectively in 1976 coaxing Bhutto, through ISI reports, to call for an early election. Bhutto succumbed to the temptation and was thrown out after the election by the military charging him with widespread poll violations and murder. <br /> <br /> In 1988, the ISI patched together a coalition - Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI) or Islamic Democratic Alliance against Ms Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP). The agency also arm-twisted Jamaat-e-Islami's newly elected chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed to join the IJI. The Army, however, finally let Ms Bhutto become the Prime Minister after her party won more seats than the IJI. To neutralise her influence, the ISI ensured that a young and upcoming leader of Pakistan Muslim League, Mr Nawaz Sharief, be elected as the Chief Minister of Punjab, the biggest province of Pakistan. <br /> <br /> In 1990, the ISI not only patched together another grand coalition against Ms Bhutto but also distributed, according to Lt General Assad Durrani (the ISI chief in an affidavit in response to a petition filed in the Supreme Court), Rs 60 million to 20 anti-Bhutto politicians. In fact, the amount used in the anti-Bhutto campaign was Rs 150 million. Not surprisingly, Mr Nawaz Sharief came to power with the help of the ISI and the Army. <br /> <br /> In 2002, the ISI cobbled together the King's Party - Pakistan Muslim League-Qaid-e-Azam - mainly by engineering defections, through money and muscle, from Mr Sharief's PML. There were allegations (mainly from the Opposition parties) that intelligence personnel kidnapped and tortured political leaders to browbeat them into joining the King's party. No less significant was the dinner hosted by the agency for politicians on the eve of the election of the Chairman of the Senate. <br /> <br /> In the recent past, the ISI has been quite active in whittling down terrorist groups targeting President Musharraf and the Army. Since it is obvious that military will not allow a single-party rule, the ISI's role in working out different coalitions, both in the Opposition and in the King's Party, will become clearer in the coming months. The MMA, for instance, is likely to witness changes in power structures, so is the PML-QA. <br /> <br /> <br /> </font> <font size="2" class="greytext1"> <em>The author is Senior Fellow, Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi. <br /> <br /> Source: The Pioneer, New Delhi, July 5, 2006.</em> <br /> <br /> <br /> <em>* Views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Observer Research Foundation.</em> <br />
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