Pakistan's government, opposition agree over ISI's role in civilian setup
Jun 04, 2022
Islamabad [Pakistan], June 5 : Pakistan's largest political parties including in government and opposition -- PML-N and PTI -- have agreed that the country's spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) should be under civilian control and answerable to the Parliament.
This comes after Pakistan Muslim League (N) coalition government gave the agency legal cover to screen civilian officials. Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif granted status of a Special Vetting Agency (SVA) to the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), empowering it to complete verification and screening of all government officers for induction, important posting/appointments and promotions, Dawn reported.
PML-N leader and former information minister Pervaiz Rasheed said on Twitter that if the ISI was being tasked with vetting civilian officials, then the spy agency should be placed under civilian control and be answerable to parliament.
This decision comes as the country is deep into political instability and has corruption at stumping levels.
ISI operates to gather, process, and analyze sensitive information relevant to the causes of national security. It consists of military officers drawn from the three service branches of the armed forces of Pakistan.
Former information minister and PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry agreed with Rasheed and said that if "institutions wanted to increase their role in civilian affairs, then they would have to pay for it in the form of public accountability".
"The institution (ISI) has to think about what role it wants to play in Pakistan's politics. A discussion is needed on the new roles of civil institutions and institutions after the media revolution," he tweeted.
Former human rights minister and PTI leader Shireen Mazari in response to Chaudhry's wrote "absolutely correct." "This debate is critical for the future of democracy in Pakistan," she tweeted.
Meanwhile, former Senate chairman, PPP's Raza Rabbani termed the decision to task ISI with screening civil servants "surprising", saying it amounted to "ceding civilian space", Dawn reported.
Rabbani, in a statement, said the additional task of screening civil servants before their induction, appointments, postings and promotions would "overburden" the ISI, keeping in view the situation on the eastern and western borders, internal terrorism and related issues.
It is to be noted that Pakistan slipped three spots to rank 120 out of 180 countries in the global Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2019 released by Transparency International.
