Head of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence, Lt. General Pasha approved the joint operation that led to the capture of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in Karachi earlier this month, highly placed sources in Islamabad told Examiner Tuesday.

Our source who requested anonymity claims that Americans had shared some evidence of mid-level link between ISI and Taliban. “When ISI’s leadership learned of mid level interaction they gave orders to carry out a well planned raid,” our source said.

In Washington DC, spokesperson for the State Department Tuesday said “the United States and Pakistan work closely together on security issues in combating terrorism that threatens both of our societies. We have had a close relationship with the Pakistani Government and I suspect that we will continue to work with them in pursuance of a policy that blunts the ability of extremist groups to attack both of our societies.”

Pakistan has been under pressure ‘to do more’ and some analysts are expressing cautious optimism that the country maybe ready to completely de-link itself from some factions of Taliban.

Recent American assurance that Pakistan will have a ‘seat on the table’ in Afghanistan and that the US will keep India in check has gone a long way in building confidence. American leadership has also assured Pakistani military that Washington does not want to interfere in Pakistan’s internal politics.

American and Pakistani officials have claimed that Mullah Baradar had the responsibility of over-all operation of the Quetta Shura, a faction of the Taliban allegedly based in the southwestern Pakistani city.

American security analysts claim that remnants of Taliban have coalesced and reconstituted an insurgent force in the Baluchistan city of Quetta and call themselves Quetta Shura. Pakistan has so far denied presence of Quetta Shura.

Although Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik denied that it was a joint operation but everyone else in the position of power has confirmed that ISI was aided by Americans in this well planned and extremely secret operation.

“Lt. Gen Pasha kept this operation very close to his chest and even those ISI agents who went on the raid didn’t know the real identity of the target,” our source said.

After the guilty verdict in the high profile trial of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui in New York, defense attorney Elaine Sharp- the only member of the defense team that Dr. Siddiqui has any relations with said: “Dr. Siddiqui told us that she was picked-up by Pakistani men in two black cars. These were people of Pakistani intelligence. You know- she said ISI.”

Following guilty verdict several popular TV Talk Show hosts in Pakistan also questioned ISI’s role in her alleged abduction in 2003. Common sentiments were that the ‘daughter of the nation’ was arrested and handed over to the Americans.

Mention of ISI evokes several conflicting emotions – and fear for Pakistanis. Just as mentioning CIA occasionally evokes images of global conspiracy and the KGB calls gulags to mind, the ISI has come to represent political deceit in Pakistan. And, during General Pervez Musharraf’s rule as more and more Pakistanis started to disappear in thin air, ISI became more enigmatic.

But current sentiments in Pakistan are an excellent opportunity for the democratic government to restructure ISI. The turmoil in Pakistan’s past has led to censure of the ISI.

A visible feature of the ISI’s history that has done great damage to its reputation is the continual deterioration of civilian institutions due to multiple military coups. Despite some improvements in civil-military relations in recent years, the army remains a dominant actor in Pakistan’s political makeup.

Disappearance of hundreds and previous abuses of power has stigmatized ISI to point that business as usual means leading the country into absolute abyss.

Although reforming ISI will be difficult, the good news is that with patience, resolve, and international assistance, Pakistan’s government can indeed reassert civilian control over the intelligence community.

Luckily for Pakistan, there are predecessors to take notes from. Indonesia and Chile have both undergone transformations in the intelligence arena and have plenty to offer Pakistan by way of example.

Pakistan’s government must reinforce the separation between civilian and military intelligence agencies. The integration of former ISI agents into other civilian bodies, particularly the IB, should be limited or stopped. Cross-recruitment prevents organizations from becoming independent.

Pakistan also needs to strengthen the police force. A better-trained and better-equipped police force can do a better job of counterterrorism, which work is currently exploited by the intelligence agencies to legitimize their control over politics in Pakistan.

Ignoring the urgent need to establish supremacy over the intelligence community would be a grave mistake on the part of Pakistan’s civilian government. Reducing the role of the military in the intelligence sector will allow the government to consolidate itself domestically, so it should be a top priority.

In addition, government control over military and intelligence will cast a positive light on the state of Pakistan’s emerging democracy, and will improve international opinion of Pakistan.

If Pakistanis honestly consider Dr. Aafia Siddiqui “daughter of the nation,” they must demand structural changes in how ISI operates and demand their government to demonstrate political will to trace all the disappeared.

With an independent judiciary and a democratic government, Pakistan has opportunity that does not come too often. It is encouraging that the Supreme Court has resumed hearings of disappearance cases but the democratically elected government has the responsibility to immediately reveal details hundreds of missing people, and hold to account those responsible — including the country’s security and intelligence agencies.

According to the Defense of Human Rights, a Pakistani organization that campaigns on behalf of the relatives of the disappeared, out of 416 enforced disappearance cases filed in the Supreme Court since 2005, 195 cases remain pending since 3 November 2007.

It is not sufficient to vent anger against the United States alone- Pakistan must clean house first. All those responsible for selling men, women, and children like slaves must be exposed. Otherwise, this outburst of anger, national pride and bravado – statements like “we will go bring the daughter of nation back,” are meaningless, insincere and belong only on soap operas or lollywood movies.

And, the international community has a vital role to play here too. On one hand they blame Pakistan’s problems on the ISI, but still maintain close relations with the agency. Often, these relations undermine the democratic government and vindicate the very intelligence actors that need to be controlled.

This double standard must be avoided by direct involvement with the Pakistani government, rather than going through intelligence services.

After the guilty verdict against Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani woman charged with attempted murder in the U.S, was announced, Elaine Whitfield Sharp, her attorney, told reporters outside the Federal Court House in New York Wednesday that government of Pakistan had put a gag order on Dr. Siddiqui’s family as a pre-condition to release her son, Ahmed.

Despite all the bravado of Pakistani officials implying that Dr. Siddiqui would be released, this verdict ensures that she will spend a few more decades in U.S. custody.

Sharp told reporters that her client, Dr. Aafia Siddiqui was picked up by ISI on March 29, 2003 in Karachi. They arrived in two black cars and placed Siddiqui in one car and the children in another car.

Dr. Siddiqui says that she was immediately hooded and drugged and when she woke up she was tied to a gurney in a place that could not have been Karachi because the air was very dry.

Sharp also discussed the issue of the missing children. She said that the baby was reported killed during the arrest, but Dr. Siddiqui does not know if the girl, Maryam, who would now be 11 years old, is alive or not.

Dr. Siddiqui was shown a picture of her baby laying in a pool of blood.

American reporters continued to find Dr.Siddiqui’s claims incredulous and questioned Sharp on the plausibility. Do you really believe her?, a reporter asked Sharp. “Yes!”, she replied categorically.

Sharp said that a gag order was placed on the family by the Government of Pakistan, who made this a pre-condition for the release of the oldest child Ahmed. This is why no one from the family has been able to talk openly about what may have happened to her and her children for 5 years.

Many reporters have also said that a Pakistani official who frequented the proceedings and told them “off the record” that Dr. Siddiqui was actually part of an Al-Qaeda sleeper cell.

Many legal observers have questioned if there was a conflict of interest in the Government of Pakistan paying for the defense when they themselves are implicated in her kidnapping.

Dr. Siddiqui, according to her attorney, requested all her supporters not to engage in any violence in protest against the verdict.

Relentless terrorist attacks killing over 2,200 civilians, a roller coaster ride for a nascent democracy, media-judiciary activism, and anti-Taliban military operations kept Pakistan in the headlines of global media outlets in 2009.

The year of 2009 will be remembered as the deadliest year in the history of Pakistan. Nearly a hundred terrorists blew themselves up, thousands of innocent people lost their lives and thousands more were brutally injured during the year.

The statistics also show that 2009 witnessed over 33 percent more attacks than 2008. Fifty-nine bombers struck in 2008 and 56 in 2007. The number of similar attacks was seven in 2006, four in 2005, seven in 2004 and two each in 2003 and 2002.

Throughout the country 2,257 civilians and 1,004 security personnel were killed in terrorist attacks. The reported number of militants killed during the year was over 8,000.

NWFP was the worst hit – 49 suicide attacks in 2009. During the same period, 22 suicide bombers succeeded to carry out attacks in various parts of Punjab and Islamabad.

Seven suicide bombings rocked the federally administered tribal areas (Fata), while two bombers struck in Balochistan.

We could have said Sindh was the only exception- but forty people were killed and scores wounded in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi on December 28^th when a suicide bomber struck country’s largest procession of Shia Muslims on the holiest day in their calendar.

January, July and September were comparatively peaceful. Nine suicide bombings were carried out across the country during the current month, nine each in October and November, four in September, six in August, four in July, nine in June, seven in May, six in April, seven each in March and February and three in January.

In the most horrendous of these bombings, 177 people, including a large number of women and children, were killed Oct 28 in a suicide attack at a crowded market in Peshawar, the NWFP capital.

The bombing at Parade Lane Mosque in Rawalpindi during the first week of December claimed the lives of several senior military officials, including a major general, two brigadiers and two colonels. The only son of the Corps Commander Peshawar was among several children of the army officers who lost their lives in this attack.

Several high-profile figures lost their lives in 2009 includes – two members of the NWFP Assembly, Dr Shamsher Ali Khan, killed in a suicide bombing in Swat last month and Mr. Alamzeb Khan,  killed in a roadside bomb attack on his car in Peshawar in January.

NWFP Senior Minister Bashir Ahmad Bilour survived a second suicide attack on March 11, which left six people including two suicide bombers dead.

Even the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency was not spared. The suicide bombers blasted a vehicle loaded with 100 kilograms of explosives near offices of the capital city police officer (CCPO) and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in Lahore on March 11. In the above attack 27 persons were killed and 326 others were injured. An ISI colonel and 15 police officials were among those killed.

An attack on an ISI facility in Peshawar in November killed 13 people and a similar attack in the Punjab town of Multan claimed 12 lives.

The suicide attack on the Pearl Continental Hotel in Peshawar on June 9 and the huge blast in Soekarno Square on October 9 were the two other deadly blasts. Over 17 people were killed and over 60 wounded in the bombing in Peshawar’s lone five-star hotel, prompting foreigners and diplomats to leave the provincial capital. The blast in Soekarno Square left over 55 people killed and many wounded. It was later removed from the list of suicide bombings, and classified as a car bomb.

On June 5, a suicide bomber killed 49 worshippers, including 12 children, at a mosque in a remote village of Dir Upper District. Dozens more were injured as a young man with explosives fastened to his body exploded minutes before the Friday gathering in the Hayagay Sharqi village.

Two successive blasts killed around 50 people and injured more than 100 at the crowded Moon Market in Allama Iqbal Town of Lahore in Punjab. The two bombs exploded with an interval of 30 seconds.

Anti-Taliban military operations began in the NWFP in April 2009- when President Zardari was in Washington DC to meet President Obama and other American representatives. Within six months the military had managed to push the militants into their strongholds in South Waziristan.

With the armed forces turning to this region in October, the suicide attacks were seen as a last desperate bid to stave off the military assault.

On September 25 the US Senate unanimously passed the revised version of the Kerry-Lugar bill to triple non-military aid to Pakistan to $1.5 billion per annum, pledging America’s long term commitment to its key ally against extremism. But this backfired!

We were in New York covering President Zardari’s activities at the UN general assembly and a grand meeting with ‘Friends of Democratic Pakistan.’ President Obama announced that the Senate had passed the bill during this meeting to a thunderous applause.

But the celebration did not last long. A correspondent of an English language daily newspaper received a call from a Pakistani Brigadier- I was standing so close that I could literally hear the conversation. “Email check ker laoo. Wadi problem hay adday wich,” {check your email. There are lots of problem} the voice on the end told my peer in Punjabi. This journalist promised his caller that it will be the lead story in his paper “tussi fikar hee na karo,” {you don’t have to worry}. After he got off the phone he showed me the email on his blackberry. The rest is history. Highly paid Pakistani journalists raised hell for four weeks before completely abandoning this issue.

And, then there was the NRO fiasco! This time around the same judge who was hired to the top Supreme Court job by a military dictator decided to weaken the democratic setup. President Zardari found the ground swept away from under his feet when the Supreme Court invalidated the 2007 National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) on Dec 16. The ordinance had granted immunity from corruption charges to his slain wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, himself, along with  hundreds of politicians and bureaucrats, enabling many to return home from exile.

The NRO, issued by former president Pervez Musharraf, had scrapped all corruption cases against politicians and bureaucrats filed between January 1986 and October 1999 on the grounds that they may have been politically motivated. The court has now ruled that the cases would be restored.

The entire year of 2009 evokes distressing memories of terrorism, bloodshed, deceit and conspiracies against the people of Pakistan.

ECONOMY

Interestingly enough, 2009 was a better year for Pakistan rupees than 2008. Forex analysis website, Dollars Magazine reports that the Pak rupee weakened 6.17 percent in 2009 after losing 22.12 percent in 2008. For Pakistan, the lesser loss was the good news of 2009.

A note on Facebook from another Pakistani journalist Beena Sarwar proclaiming  that “We shall overcome” leaves me optimistic that 2010 will bring peace and stability.  But, it will take the Pakistani people to rise up and demand that all state officials and institutions respond effectively to this crisis and begin making the welfare and interests of its citizens an urgent priority.

The Obama administration’s pressure on Pakistan’s military leadership is yielding some results, says a reliable source in Washington DC, as ISI and CIA are teaming-up to intensify operations in Baluchistan

A senior Pakistani official told us today that the ISI and CIA have conducted over fifty joint operations recently. “These are very complex engagements. CIA and ISI depend on each other for not only success of these operations but to watch each other’s back,” official said stressing under the apparent tension – there is solid cooperation between two intelligence agencies.

Other Pakistani government officials complain that their army is overstretched and under- appreciated for handling vicious terrorists in Swat, South Waziristan and Orakzai.

The Obama administration has sent several senior officials to Islamabad in the past two weeks urging Pakistan to tackle North Waziristan and allow drone strikes into the western province of Balochistan.

“We feel joint targeted operations are more successful in Balochistan. Drone attacks will be counterproductive,” said the Pakistani official. He acknowledges that the Obama administration is becoming more ‘demanding’ and has warned General Kayani that “you do it, or we will”.

A senior civilian adviser to America’s special forces commander in Afghanistan, Seth Jones in his New York Times article, Take the war to Pakistan, has argued that the Afghan war is “run and organized out of Balochistan” by the Quetta shura, a 15-man war council led by the Taliban leader Mullah Omar. “Virtually all significant meetings of the Taliban take place in that province, and many of the group’s senior leaders and military commanders are based there,” he said.

Pakistan army’s ‘secretive’ relations with American counterpart are no surprise.

During Musharaf’s tenure, according to a report in Guardian today, American Special Forces had conducted multiple clandestine raids into Pakistan’s tribal areas.  A former NATO officer told the Guardian that the incursions occurred between 2003 and 2008, and involved helicopter-borne elite soldiers stealing across the border at night.

“While public opinion has grudgingly tolerated CIA-led drone strikes in the tribal areas, any hint of American “boots on the ground” is greeted with virulent condemnation,” the Guardian claims.

This dynamic  has changed. The Pakistan Army does not want to allow drone attacks in Baluchistan and would rather conduct joint operations.

The CIA-ISI relationship is extremely complex: on the one hand we learn about how these two agencies are working together but through consistent leaks we are often told a different story – that they are devoid of any semblance of trust. Below are recently declassified CIA documents that accuse ISI of playing ‘double game’ during Genereal Musharaf’s rule.

The ISI had plotted a stint to malign the President of Pakistan and that is why the Pakistani High Commisioner to Britain was intercepted in Geneva while retrieving documents for the National Acountability Bureau from Swiss attorneys. He was accompanied by Dr. Danishwar Malik of NAB and they were performing a government duty but they were represented as acting criminally by a GEO TV reporter. The following interview of Wajid Shams-ul-Hassan was conducted one day before the Supreme Court decision on NRO..

Ibrahim Sajid Malick (ISM): What were you doing in Geneva?

Wajid Shamsul Hasan (WSH):  I was officially assigned by the Pakistan Foreign Office to accompany NAB Prosecutor General Dr Danishwar Malik to Geneva. Dr Danishwar Malik was dispatched from NAB Islamabad to go to Geneva to collect the cartons lying with the Swiss lawyers.

ISM: What documents did you pick up from the attorney and why?

WSH:  It was the NAB Prosecutor General who received the closed cartons in my presence and that of Mr. Aftab Khokher, Deputy Permanent Representative at the Pakistan’s Geneva Mission. Since the boxes were closed I do not know the nature of things inside the boxes.

ISM: Why did you not respond to Geo stringer?

WSH: I was intercepted by two hoodlum looking guys in a Geneva street. They did not identify themselves as such and I was not obliged to respond to thug-looking strangers.

ISM: Is it your intent to destroy these documents? If not, can they be used against President Zardari? Are you willing to make them available to Pakistani judicial system?

WSH:  Boxes sent in sealed diplomatic bags from Geneva by the Pakistan’s Permanent Representative’s office are in the safe custody of Pakistan High Commission in London. These sealed diplomatic bags containing the boxes were inspected by the NAB Prosecutor General Dr. Danishwar Malik on his arrival in London from Geneva. There was no intent and there is no question of either tampering with them or destroying them. They will be shipped as and when NAB makes arrangements. As regards their

ISM: NAB Chairmain Naveed Ahsan has asked that you send the Swiss court record of cases against President Zardari as soon as possible through diplomatic bag and special courier. Will you comply?

WSH: Yes. Those boxes lying in the Pakistan Embassy in London are NAB’s property. I have requested the NAB authorities to assign Dr Danishwar Malik who brought them here, to come over to London, collect them after inspection and conform if these were subjected to any tampering or foul play as was alleged by a section of Pakistani media. I have requested that either NAB Prosecutor General Dr Danishwar Malik or any person authorized by NAB is sent to London as a special courier to inspect those boxes. Pakistan High Commission will make arrangements accordingly for their shipment in the same sealed diplomatic bags they were sent to London from Deputy Permanent Representative of Pakistan’s Permanent mission in Geneva.

ISM: Did you benefit from NRO? If not, why is your name in the list of NRO beneficiaries?

WSH: I did not benefit from NRO. It was clarified by the Minister of State for Law Mr. Afzal Sindhu, that in his press conference while announcing the list of NRO beneficiaries my name was mentioned inadvertently as a mistaken identity since a name similar to mine was in the list. My position was repeatedly clarified in the media.

However, I regret that despite clarifications a particular group in the media continues to mention my name as a beneficiary although its channel Geo was the first to highlight Law Minister’s clarification. Obviously this could mean there is a sinister method behind this madness. And, the conspiracy to destabilize the democratic government is gaining strength.

ISM: Do you know a gentleman name Naseer Malik in Geneva? Why was he so interested in embarrassing you?

WSH:  Most certainly not.

ISM: Why do you think ISI’s Joint Counterintelligence Bureau rep who works within your premises provided your travel information to Geo’s stringer?

WSH: I do not think that any one working in my Mission was involved in ‘leaking’ the information of my travel. Any way my visit was not clandestine or mysterious as everything was on record.

ISM: Why were you framed? Who gains from it?

WSH:  I feel that I have been made a victim of a scandalous campaign by Bhutto-haters with the sole objective of targeting President Zardari. By hitting me they think they weaken Mr. Zardari.

ISM: Why do you think Pakistanis who support democracy are muzzled?

WSH: It is a game of lethal perceptions let loose in a section of the media with an agenda of their own to destabilize and derail democracy.  Since they could not manage an electoral defeat to keep PPP out of power, they now want democracy to be murdered judicially. This is amply reflected in their comments that whatever the decision of the Supreme Court, the recent ‘disclosures’ by the media shall have to be taken notice of. I am confident that Pakistan’s judiciary has come of age through toughest trial; it won’t play to the media gallery and shall act on merit. President Zardari has been a victim of political vendetta for more than ten years. The pudding of vendetta has been tasted by the Chief Justice himself who was made a similar victim of reference of fabricated charges by President Musharraf. Had there been no change in government General Musharraf would have made him rot in detention. He was brutally maligned by that section of the media who dance to the tunes played by their masters who had supported Musharraf in his action against the Chief Justice.