Its Chief of Army Staff, Gen Qamar Bajwa, has unilaterally appointed
Lt Gen Nadeem Ahmed Anjum to the lynchpin job of the DG ISI
The innocuous Abpara area of Islamabad hosts the most shadowy element
of the Pakistani “establishment” ie, headquarters of its spy agency,
the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence). Infamous with monikers like
“State within a State”, “rogue agency” or as former Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif cuttingly described it as “Khalai makhlooq”
(extraterrestrial aliens)! The umbilical cord of Pakistani governance
is publicly fronted by the façade of a civilian Government in
Islamabad but is practically remote controlled by the dour Pakistani
Generals who operate from 20 km away in the garrison township of
Rawalpindi, where the Pakistan military’s General Head Quarters (GHQ)
sits.
Keeping a proverbial eye, ear and mind onto the affairs and control of
the Pakistani officialdom is the lynchpin job of the Director General
ISI (DG ISI), who ostensibly reports directly to the Prime Minister
but, as a uniformed officer, is clearly beholden to the Pakistani
military. This makes the ultra-sensitive job of the DG ISI as second
most sought after and powerful office in Pakistan’s military hierarchy
(if not in entire Pakistan). The ability of the incumbent to shape the
national governance agenda, priorities and tenor is immense, given
that it has had notorious DG’s like General Hamid Gul whose sense of
extracurricular activism earned the institution much international
infamy and dread. The recent sighting of the earlier DG ISI landing in
the mayhem and mass exodus of Kabul with a chilling statement that
“everything will be okay” was soon followed by a virtual “coup” within
the Taliban’s ranks, with the ISI’s preferred and deadly Haqqani
faction usurping the Afghan Taliban leadership.
Today, the perennially manipulative and suspicious elements within the
loose arrangement of the Pakistani “establishment” are at extreme
unease as Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff, General Qamar Bajwa, has
gone ahead and unilaterally announced a new DG ISI, Lt Gen Nadeem
Ahmed Anjum, without the apparent concurrence or alignment with the
Prime Minister. Timing is ominous with Pakistan saddled with an
unprecedented economic crisis, dangerous unrest in Balochistan, Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa, Line of Control (LoC) and across the invisible Durand
Line. Above all, with just about a year away from the end of the
three-year extended term of Gen Bajwa, the stakes are high. The choice
of the DG ISI was understandably a matter of concern for various
competing stakeholders and, with the pre-emptive announcement of Lt
Gen Anjum, Gen Bajwa has ensured his man at the pivotal post. Prime
Minister Imran Khan is left with the awkward choice of swallowing his
pride and sanctifying the choice or risking going against the mighty
Pakistani military — something that he can ill-afford given the
popular mood within the country, that increasingly disbelieves his
spiel of “naya Pakistan” (new Pakistan). Importantly, Gen Bajwa had
short-circuited the traditional approach of forwarding three names for
the PM’s consideration and, in doing so, set the cat among the
pigeons.
Imran, like his civilian predecessors like Nawaz Sharif, assorted
Bhuttos and other proxies, will realise that irrespective of the
preferences showered, the loyalty of the Generals is only unto
themselves and their “institution” and certainly not to the civilian
masters or even the country beyond a point. Pakistan’s governance
history is littered with invariable U-turns by Generals who either
unceremoniously dumped their political benefactors or sent them to the
gallows — General Ayub started the trend with Iskander Mirza, General
Zia treacherously hanged Zulfikar Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto faced
ISI-organised Operation Midnight Jackal, Nawaz Sharif was outdone by
General Pervez Musharaf. All these retractions by Pakistani Generals
followed an ironical trend of a supposedly “pliant/loyal” choice of a
General (like Zia-ul-Haq and Pervez Musharaf, who superseded others as
they were initially considered non-threatening). Interestingly, the
latest bout between Imran-Gen Bajwa follows the same pattern of a quid
pro quo gone sour. Pakistani military is widely believed to have been
behind the “management” of Imran’s success in the 2018 elections, and
the favour was duly returned with Gen Bajwa securing a three-year
extension to the post of COAS.
The Pakistan “establishment” is a minefield of insecurities and turf
wars that ensure that nobody can take the other for granted
permanently. Beyond the simplistic calculus and optics of a
military-versus-politician’s tiff thrives a complex admixture of
clergy, judiciary and media to even foreign powers (from Ummah to the
Chinese) that can be tapped into towards desired outcome. With such a
lay of the land, the role of the globetrotting DG ISI, who often plays
a role far more expansive than the usually mandated for Intelligence
heads in other countries, becomes apparent. Unsurprisingly, when a
certain political appointee like Lt Gen Shamsur Rahman Kallu did make
it to the DG ISI’s post, the Pakistani military made sure that his
role, relevance and access was cut to size.
From all public accounts, Lt Gen Anjum is professionally well-rounded
with multiple military courses from the UK and the US, besides
diversified command/staff exposures — above all, his surprise and
unilateral appointment will ensure a modicum of the “institution’s
man” with watertight loyalty to the Rawalpindi GHQ in the perennial
cloak-and-dagger of Pakistani governance. The Pakistani military has
tripped politicos, yet again.
(The writer, a military veteran, is a former Lt Governor of Andaman &
Nicobar Islands and Puducherry. The views expressed are personal.)
