Controversies of ISI

Critics of the ISI say that it has become a state within a state, answerable neither to the leadership of the army, nor to the President or the Prime Minister.[19] The ISI has been deeply involved in domestic politics of Pakistan since the late 1950s. The 1990 elections for example were widely believed to have been rigged by the ISI in favor of the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI) party, a conglomerate of nine mainly rightist parties by the ISI under Lt. General Hameed Gul, to ensure the defeat of Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in the polls.[20] Gul has denied that the vote was rigged. In early 1990s ISI became involved in politics of Karachi, it launched operation against the Mujahir Qaumi Movement (MQM) seeing its growing popularity and political strength in the province of Sindh. It is alleged that ISI was involved in dividing MQM. This led to the creation of MQM-A and MQM-H, the former being the party of Altaf Hussain and latter Haqiqi group. MQM-Haqiqi group was made by ISI to target MQM-A and to stop its growing popularity. It even bribed several journalists and newspapers to agitate against MQM-A.[21] ISI's Internal Political Division has been accused by various members of the Pakistan People's Party in assassinating Shahnawaz Bhutto, one of the two brothers of Benazir Bhutto, through poisoning in the French Riviera in the middle of 1985 in an attempt to intimidate her into not returning to Pakistan for directing the movement against Zia's Military government, but no proof has been found implicating the ISI.

The ISI was also involved in a massive corruption scandal dubbed "Mehrangate", in which top ISI and Army brass were given large sums of money by Yunus Habib (the owner of Mehran Bank) to deposit ISI’s foreign exchange reserves in Mehran Bank.[22] This was against government policy, as such banking which involves government institutions can only be done through state-owned financial institutions and not private banks. When the new director of the ISI was appointed and then proceeded to withdraw the money from Mehran Bank and back into state-owned financial institutions, the money had been used up in financing Habib's “extracurricular” activities. On April 20, 1994, Habib was arrested and the scandal became public.

India, on basis of data collected on islamic insurgents in Kashmir, has blamed the ISI for training, arming and giving logistics to the militants who are fighting the Indian security forces in Indian-administered Kashmir.[9] Federation of American Scientists reports that the Inter-Service Intelligence, is the main supplier of funds and arms to the militant groups.[20] The British Government had stated there is a 'clear link' between Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and three major militant outfits[23] The Guardian newspaper had uncovered evidence that Pakistani militants were openly raising funds and training new recruits and that the ISI's Kashmir cell was instrumental in funding and controlling these outfits.[24]India also accused ISI of masterminding the 1993 Mumbai bombings, with backing from Dawood Ibrahim's D-Company.[9] Aside from Kashmir, India accuses the ISI of running training camps near the border of Bangladesh in late 1990s where India claims the ISI trains members of various separatist groups from the northeastern Indian states. The ISI has denied these accusations, although without being able to clear its involvement from them.

In January 1993, the United States placed Pakistan on the watch list of such countries which were suspected of sponsoring international terrorism. This decision was made in part because the current head of the ISI in 1993, Lt. Gen. Nasir, had become a stumbling block in American efforts to buy back hundreds of shoulder-fired, surface-to-air FIM-92 Stinger missiles from the Afghan Mujahideen and was assisting organizations such as Harkat ul-Ansar, which had been branded as a terrorist organization by the US. Once Nasir's tenure as ISI chief ended, the US removed Pakistan from the terrorism watch list. The ISI is also suspected to have been involved with the hijackers of the September 11, 2001 attacks, having paid the ringleader Mohamed Atta.[25] After 9/11, ISI was supposedly purged of members who did not support President Pervez Musharraf's stance towards the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Newsreports in July 2008, however indicate that ISI may instead have chosen to merely suppress the activities of these individuals rather than remove them from office.

In the BBC Newsnight Programme on 27 September 2006, a research paper prepared for the Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), was quoted linking the ISI with support for the Taliban and other terrorist acts in the west.[26] The report states, "The US/UK cannot begin to turn the tide until they identify the real enemies from attacking ideas tactically - and seek to put in place a more just vision. This will require Pakistan to move away from Army rule and for the ISI to be dismantled and more significantly something to be put in its place."[27] This was denied by President Musharraf, "I totally, 200% reject it. I reject it from anybody - MoD or anyone who tells me to dismantle ISI."[28] The Council on Foreign Relations, a US foreign policy think tank published an article casting doubt on some of the accusations, 'Though Pakistan does offer safe haven to Kashmiri groups, and perhaps some Taliban fighters, the suggestion that the ISI is responsible for the 7/7 bombings of London’s mass transit system is “a real stretch,” [Kathy] Gannon says'.[29] However, a later report by the same think tank, The Council on Foreign Relations, stated there was probably support for terrorism from rogue elements of the ISI, exhibiting the failure of civilian intelligence like the CFR in estimmating the capability of the ISI .

Amnesty International publish a report on 29 September 2006 accusing Pakistan of detaining hundreds of alleged terror suspects without legal process. The group says some were tortured or otherwise ill-treated, others were sold to the US military, and others have vanished without trace. "Journalists and human rights activists have told Amnesty International that most terror suspects deemed important by Pakistani intelligence were held in "safe houses" run by "the agencies" – Pakistan’s intelligence agencies including the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Military Intelligence (MI)."[30] 'In many cases, U.S. agents paid a bounty of $5,000 (2,667 UK pounds) to those, usually intelligence agents, who simply declared people terrorists, seized them and handed them over for interrogation with no legal process, Amnesty said. "Enforced disappearances were almost unheard of in Pakistan before the start of the U.S-led war on terror – now they are a growing phenomenon, spreading beyond terror suspects", Amnesty researcher Angelika Pathak said.'[31] Gen Musharraf strongly denied the allegations that some alleged terror suspects had vanished without trace, "I don't want even to reply to that, it is a nonsense, I don't believe it, I don't trust it".[32] 'Gen Musharraf has boasted of the arrests as proof of his commitment to the fight against Al Qaeda. In his new memoirs, "In the Line of Fire", he claims that the CIA has paid Pakistan hundreds of millions of dollars in bounty payments for the capture of 369 Al Qaeda suspects since 2001.'

Some members of the American media and political establishment have questioned Pakistan's commitment in combating the Taliban and Al Qaeda remnants in border areas. In response, Pakistan has pointed to the deployment of nearly 80,000 troops in the border areas and the arrests of more than 700 Al Qaeda members carried out by supposedly ISI members, the most high profile ones including 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, as proof that the ISI was serious in its commitment to fighting the War on Terrorism.[34] However, the recent deal with the rebels to end the Waziristan War has been seen by many observers as a defeat for Pakistan,[35] that has strengthened Taliban powerbase in Waziristan.[36] Moreover, NATO's top commanders have criticized ISI's continued role in supplying weapons and providing sanctuary to the terrorists[37] but have approved the deal.

In the aftermath of the 2008 Indian embassy bombing in Kabul, the Afghan, Indian, and United States governments all accused ISI of orchestrating the attack, leading Bush to ask the civilian Prime Minister of Pakistan, "Who controls ISI?"[39] The information leak in question referred to the fact that information shared by the Americans to the ISI about future strikes against terrorist targets seemed to be leaked to the terrorists prior to the attacks, indicating widespread connections between Pakistan's intelligence agency and fundamentalist Islamic terrorist organizations.