I partially agree with Carlotta Gall, whose writings I admire, who recently wrote an interesting article, along with David Rohde, in the New York Times titled ‘Pakistan Struggles Against Militants Trained by Agency (Pakistan’s ISI)’.
Her write-up from Islamabad states: “Pakistan’s premier military intelligence agency (ISI) has lost control of some of the networks of Pakistani militants it has nurtured since the 1980s, and is now suffering the violent blowback of that policy, two former senior intelligence officials and other officials close to the agency say.”
(An earlier NYT report adds: “The Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate is, according to some, Pakistan’s shadowy equivalent of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). According to others, it is in effect a shadow government, one that has used its ties to drug dealers and Islamic extremists to stir up trouble not only in Pakistan but in Afghanistan and the Kashmir region of India as well.”) More here…
However, Pakistan had not taken a unilateral stand on this issue. (I quote from the NYT again: “The ISI was formed in the early days of Pakistan’s independence, but took on greater importance as the rivalry with India and tensions over Kashmir rose in the 1960’s. Its role increased sharply after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, when the United States pressed Pakistan to support the guerilla war that eventually led to a Soviet withdrawal. In the civil wars that followed, the ISI backed the Taliban, which came from the Pashtun-speaking region on Pakistan’s border. For another article on ISI pl click here…
I partially agree with Carlotta’s NYT story that the ISI has become a Frankenstein’s monster, along with the Islamist militants it is in league with. However, one cannot overlook the fact that President Musharraf, or whoever heads the government in Pakistan, has to please (or had been pleasing) a number of players. It is a balancing/blackmailing game – and you have to be more clever than a fox to do it. The top guy in Pakistan has to humour the White House, the CIA, the Al-Quaeda, Islamist militants of different hues, powerful drug dealers, political/military challenges within the country…and what have you!!!
It is no coincidence that the present Chief of the Pakistan Army, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who was handpicked by President Pervez Musharraf to succeed him, previously led Pakistan’s premier military intelligence agency ISI. (See photo above of Musharraf and Kayani: courtesy Anjum Naveed/Associated Press)
I wrote a post recently grudgingly admiring President Musharraf. Please click here to read the post… Although I have sympathy for him, but I also fear that he may not be able to ride two tigers for long and the old adage may come true sooner than later …. ‘You can fool some people sometimes, but you can’t fool all the people all the time’. But then some believe that so long his present mentor in the White House is there, Musharraf has nothing to worry.
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.