'Probe charges of ISI's hand in scribes murder'

The Inter-Services Intelligence should probe allegations of its involvement in the abduction and killing of journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad and stop interfering in affairs of the civilian administration, a noted columnist said on Wednesday in an open letter to the chief of the Pakistani spy agency.

The letter to ISI chief, Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha, written by columnist Ejaz Haider, in The Express Tribune newspaper, referred to a wide array of accusations leveled against the powerful spy agency, including the allegation that the ISI was involved in the abduction of Shahzad last month.

"I would expect that you would do everything to prove that Saleem was not murdered by the ISI. Conversely, if the spook is traced back to your agency, that you would ensure that whoever is responsible for it, no matter how highly placed, would face the law as a common murderer," wrote Haider, a leading commentator on defence and strategic issues.

"That is the only honourable thing to do and nothing less would do, or be acceptable. That is also the only way you can save this country," he said. Haider wrote that Pasha must be aware "that the ISI is widely reviled and dreaded at home. For an agency that was set up primarily for strategic intelligence, this is quite an achievement."

"It is accused of driving in its own lane, monitoring the media, kidnapping, torturing and sometimes killing dissenters, political and otherwise, determining, arbitrarily, what Pakistan's national interest is and how best we should go about pursuing it," he added.

Noting that the ISI was answerable to elected representatives, Haider wrote, "The military-ISI combine has no business defining Pakistan's interest. That is our job and we, the civilians, will do it through our representatives. Your job is to implement, not formulate, policies."

Rights groups and journalists' organisations have claimed that intelligence agencies were involved in the abduction and killing of Shahzad, who went missing from Islamabad two days after he wrote an article on May 27 alleging that the the Pakistan navy had been infiltrated by Al Qaeda.

Shahzad's body was later found in a canal in Punjab province. In a statement issued to state-run APP news agency recently, an unnamed ISI official denied that the spy agency was in any way involved in Shahzad's killing.

The official said that while the "unfortunate and tragic death of Syed Saleem Shahzad is a source of concern for the entire nation, the incident should not be used to target and malign the country's security agencies."

Haider said the explanation offered by the unnamed ISI official was "totally unacceptable." He added, "What makes the security agencies exempt from criticism or accountability, especially if they are considered enemies by the very people they are supposed to protect?"

He further noted that some former ISI personnel "have not only admitted to electoral fraud, rigging, making and breaking of political alliances, buying people through a mix of carrots and sticks, and browbeating the media, but consider having done so as part of their remit and in the best national interest."

Since it is the ISI chief's job to identify threats, "you must understand the deep fault lines developing in this state. Today's disarray is the product of flawed policies and even more flawed attempts at nation-building," Haider wrote.

"Strategic vision, like charity, begins at home. If the people of this country feel proud to be Pakistanis, you will have that strength at your back. If they don't, that makes you very weak too. And you can't beat people into submission; nor kill them and expect all will be hunky-dory," Haider wrote.