Pakistan’s agency, Inter-Services Intelligence has a subtle message which says that ISI cannot be tamed. Anyone, whether a civilian ruler in Islamabad or his well-wisher in far away Washington, who entertains such a thought is living in a fool’s paradise, as are those who think that the agency that makes many of the country’s citizens disappear and rig elections on orders from the army can be humanized. The official notification placed the ISI as also the country’s Intelligence Bureau under the interior ministry.

ISI, a creation of Ayub era, has always been under the direct control of the army, one of the trinity of Allah, America and Army - that decide the destiny of Pakistan. The army would have had no difficulty in making out a case against transferring the ISI to the civilians at this juncture when it seems to have made one notable achievement in the continued subterranean war of inflicting a thousand wounds on India like the spread of the jihadi poison outside Jammu and Kashmir with places far apart as Jaipur, Bangalore and Ahmedabad coming under a wave of terrorist attacks.

Given the army’s stranglehold over Pakistan as it runs not only a parallel government but also parallel economy with a thriving private sector of its own. First bringing the ISI under the civilian control would dilute the criticism against the ISI which has been accused of becoming a rogue organization, a state within the state, as a result of which the army has also been getting a bad name. Second the US would be pleased as it has been voicing concern over ISI shenanigans. Third with ISI under his care, Rehman Malik becomes more powerful than Gen (retd) Musharraf.

Naturally, this scheme could not have been acceptable to anyone in the army or the ISI. A country that is still for all practical purposes ruled by the men in uniform cannot see a change of ownership in such an organization. From Pakistan’s point of view the ISI has been doing some very useful jobs that the army cannot perform, at least overtly, because of the country, participation in the so-called war on terror. The ISI has been relentless in striking at India. On the country’s western borders beyond the Durand Line, the ISI is continuing its mission o spreading the Taliban influence. The ISI is trying to find its way into the power structure of Afghanistan and thus secure for the country a foreign policy depth. The plain fact is ISI is an instrument of state policy. A long as Pakistan retains a police of hostility towards its two neighbors which are India an Afghanistan and ISI, the agency will remain Pakistan’s most powerful body, one that will brook n interference from anyone and from any quarter. Be whatever the situation or whether the ISI reports to X, Y or to Z matters little. As, there can be nothing more than a cosmetic change undertaken to mislead the Americans and as long as that is solved nothing matters.