Need for a directorate of counter-intelligence
According to our defence minister and the Western press, during the prime minister’s US itinerary President Bush shared his concerns regarding the alleged Taliban appeasement by some elements in the ISI. This is not much. Since the genesis of the Taliban owed quite a lot to the ISI’s manoeuvres it is natural for some elements to feel some degree of affinity with the haunted group. The Red Mosque imbroglio and the sudden rise of the Taliban inside Pakistan, exactly at a time when the Western press had dismissed its impact inside Pakistan, certainly point in the very direction. This is apart from the fact that had the Taliban been a smart a state-actor it would have found it quite easy to penetrate the ISI for it is an agency which has already lost touch with counter intelligence. Want any proof? Well, has it ever occurred to you that how a highly classified document called the Hamood-ur-Rehman Commission Report found its way to an Indian newspaper during the reign of a military dictator here? Pakistan is a soft state and of course its intelligence agency is seriously prone to penetration for it is leaking like a battered septic tank.
Yet this does not mean that the ISI is the only group to blame. We all know that during the Cold War the CIA also has affinity to the religious militants. Some of the handlers are still associated with the agency. Add to it the fact that the Indian Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) has a history of penetration into and the manipulation of the CIA. Unlike our intelligence folks Indians being a growing regional power take their chores far too seriously. During Karzai’s regime the chances have increased of such a manoeuvre for the CIA has to rely quite deeply on their Afghan guides who in turn rely quite a lot on the Indian moles for India owing to its JN Dixit Doctrine is the highest bidder in the region. Data can hence easily be manipulated. Yet I am not shifting responsibility. It is the ISI’s responsibility to do as much as it has signed up for. And apart from everything else to ensure that while it meets the government assigned international commitments, it does not allow itself to be used by a foreign power. The question then arises how to mend a leaking faucet and to ensure that none of the intelligence operative can use the agency’s resources for a personal agenda.
It is the place where counter intelligence steps in. During the Cold War era the world agencies used to attach considerable importance to the counter intelligence operations. In those days the barium meals were quite in vogue. The philosophy of the barium meals is that after developing a hunch about the geography of the leak to feed bits of important but not critical information to one segment only. A host of such pieces can be fed to various segments with the clear capacity to identify and then to wait for the leak. The moment that leak occurs you can conveniently identify the mole. This technique can be used both upside down and downside up. In this way even a mere field operator can also identify the culprit. Yet this is not the only technique available. As James Jesus Angleton of the CIA counter intelligence used to say you need patience of a saint to conduct such operations. In Pakistan’s case foreign intrusion is so severe that you may not find too much difficulty in identifying any particular strain. But this may also for a few months affect the ongoing anti-terror operations. The right question to ask is whether our Western friends would also have the same patience too. I believe they should display this much empathy for once such a counter intelligence manoeuvre has been completed and all malicious elements been weeded out what Pakistan may accomplish may put an end to all terrorism in the region. And the timing suits everyone too. August has already started and within no time winter will ensue. There fortunately exists a consensus among the intelligence agencies that during winters the operational capability of the Taliban remains all time low. Meanwhile the US and the rest of the West can address their own chinks in the intelligence armour. This ladies and gentlemen is the most serious need of the hour.
What can Pakistan do to improve its counter intelligence capacity? Well, honestly first of all it will have to understand that the times have changed and the intelligence agencies cannot be allowed to be used for political purposes. The first important step for us is to accept that no military regimes can prove trust worthy for the west and hence democracy is here to stay and to strengthen. The second important step is to bring all intelligence principals under one title. The US intelligence community now reports to the Director of National Intelligence whose responsibilities have been withdrawn from the CIA’s director. Perhaps we need to do any similar thing. I am aware of the sentiments of the armed forces on this. I clearly remember that when he was the Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Ehsaan a former ISI chief was in favour of such a move. Unfortunately we witnessed a bit of a circus before the Prime Minister’s visit to the US when a clear attempt was made to bring the ISI and the IB under Rehman Malik. Given the degree of unpopularity Mr Malik enjoys within the country and the armed forces this was nothing but a damp squib. Again the ISI has nothing to do with the interior ministry and we do not need a Hameed Gul to know this much. Had someone other than Lt Gen (retired) Mahmud Durrani, Like Lt Gens (retired) Asad Durrani or Talat Masood or Gen Ehsaan were to become the National Security Advisor, he could also shoulder this burden.
The third and most important need of the hour is to develop a separate Directorate of Counter Intelligence with at least as much budget as that of the ISI. I know the ISI and MI also conduct or claim to conduct counter intelligence operations but this is an onerous responsibility and for the sake of the country’s survival we need a separate rubric for this. Time is very tricky and the leaking faucet can be mended on in this manner.









The role of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in the restoration of democracy throughout history has simply been heroic. It has sacrificed its leaders. It has often accepted humiliating terms in order to ensure transition to democracy and it has only too often forgiven its arch enemies. Yet there is no gainsaying that it has never emerged unharmed out of these episodes. There might be many in our learned class who care two hoots about the future of the PPP for now the establishment’s figurehead, an ex-army chief and reigning president of the country, has fashioned himself as the champion of liberal thought. But there are uncountable among us who seriously worry about Pakistan’s only democratic force. The PPP has shown more than once that it is the only serious force advocating unadulterated democracy.













