ISI ‘tried to undermine’ democracy in Pakistan

Tom Hussain, Foreign Correspondent

• Last Updated: September 29. 2009 11:46PM UAE / September 29. 2009 7:46PM GMT

Former spymaster Imtiaz Ahmed says he is doing his duty as a citizen by revealing past conspiracies. Muzammil Pasha for The National

ISLAMABAD // A former spymaster once considered the greatest threat to Pakistani democracy has rocked the army and political opposition with a series of revelations about their involvement in past conspiracies against former governments.

Brig Imtiaz Ahmed burst out of obscurity in August in a series of media interviews, saying that as director of the internal security wing of the military’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) directorate in 1988, he had orchestrated the creation of Islami Jamhoori Ittihad, a coalition of Right-wing parties, to oppose the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) of Benazir Bhutto.

The coalition, led by Nawaz Sharif, now leader of the political opposition, succeeded in preventing the PPP from winning an outright majority in elections that year, although it went on to form a coalition government.

Mr Ahmed claimed that the coalition’s leaders subsequently colluded with ISI and Ghulam Ishaq Khan, a bureaucrat turned president, to have Bhutto’s administration dismissed on charges of corruption and incompetence in 1990.

In an interview, he said his role in the 1990 conspiracy had involved distributing briefcases of cash to opposition party leaders, implying that only one, Altaf Hussain of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), a party hugely popular among Urdu-speaking migrants from India, had refused to accept the proffered bribe.

Mr Ahmed said that, with hindsight, he felt a “tinge of regret” about forming the anti-Bhutto opposition coalition, but qualified that by arguing: “At the time, to any sane mind, it was quite in line with the prevailing political scenario”.

But he was at pains to highlight his role as that of a military officer carrying out orders.

“I was not the one calling the shots. I was working within the policy framework of my superiors under their strict monitoring. My detractors have created the impression that I was operating alone, but I was only a cog in the machine.”

Mr Ahmed was forced into retirement after Bhutto’s government presented evidence of his involvement in that and other conspiracies against it. But the party’s attempt to sideline him was futile. Elections were held and won by Mr Sharif’s coalition, and Mr Ahmed was subsequently appointed director general of the civilian Intelligence Bureau.

In his new role Mr Ahmed soon found himself fighting off the very kind of anti-government intelligence agency conspiracy he had once orchestrated.

As Mr Sharif, the prime minister, increasingly distanced himself from his former military patrons, the army undermined his coalition by launching a security operation against the MQM, a key partner, in 1992.

Mr Ahmed said the operation was launched without the knowledge of the prime minister, but Mr Sharif gave it his backing after the military unearthed torture chambers it alleged were run by the MQM political militia.

Military Intelligence, an army agency distinct from ISI, also leaked maps of “Jinnahpur”, purported to be a breakaway state being planned by the MQM, to drum up public support for the operation during which thousands of party activists were killed. Mr Hussain was forced to flee into exile in the United Kingdom.

Mr Ahmed admitted the Jinnahpur map was concocted and that army revelations about MQM torture chambers were “80 per cent exaggerated”.

Mr Ahmed’s statements have been corroborated by Gen Naseer Akhtar, who was head of the army’s Karachi Corps, who met Mr Hussain in London in August to apologise for his past actions – an extraordinary admission that the MQM chief has since used to pummel Mr Sharif’s democratic credentials.

“I helped to remove a stain on a major segment of Pakistan’s population. Otherwise their children would have borne the stigma of treachery and that would have had serious, drastic consequences for the country,” Mr Ahmed said in an interview with The National.

Mr Ahmed’s confessions came amid rising tensions between Mr Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari, the president and Bhutto’s successor as PPP chief, sparking speculation in the Pakistani media that Mr Zardari had colluded with Mr Hussain, a key ally, to embarrass the opposition leader.

However, Mr Ahmed said he made his decision to go public while serving an eight-year prison term for owning property beyond his proven income in an anti-corruption court. The courts were set up by Pervez Musharraf, the military chief who overthrew Mr Sharif in a coup d’état in 1999. Mr Musharraf was himself forced out of office last year.

Mr Ahmed said he was concerned about the possible consequences of mounting public disillusionment with civilian politicians, calling it the result of the autocratic tendency of politicians to accrue personal power after being elected.

“I have seen a succession of political governments lose sight of the fact that their power base hinges on an independently functioning, strong parliament. Intentionally, they have undermined parliament because they intended to function outside the parameters of the system, in effect becoming a proxy for military dictatorship.”

He said the failure of politicians to learn from the past would empower hardliners within the military intelligence agencies and enable them to resume their historic role as a shadow government.

“If I succeed in giving the politicians a wake-up call, I’ll feel I have done my duty as a citizen,” Mr Ahmed said.