By Najam Sethi
Three new factors have now reinforced Zardari’s compulsion to retool the ISI and bring it under civilian control. The first has to do with the PPP’s strategic foreign policy perceptions that are different from the national security imperative of the ISI. In short, the PPP is a civilian party that wants liberal and secular policies at home and peace with its neighbours, especially India, while the ISI is predominantly a military institution ( 70 per cent of its staff comes from the military) which takes its ideological inspiration from the military and continues to molly- coddle religious parties and groups in the military’s quest for “ containing” India and “ securing” Afghanistan. This issue dates back to 1989 when the ISI labelled Bhutto a “national security risk” for attempting to smoke the peace pipe with Rajiv Gandhi while today it is opposed to the PPP government’s policy of visa and trade liberalisation with India without acceptable trade- offs on Kashmir, Siachen and other outstanding disputes.
http://www.newageislam.com/zardari-has-failed-to-tame-isi/war-on-terror/d/382
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