ISI Faith, Unity, Discipline

 

ISI  
 

The Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (more commonly known as Inter-Services Intelligence or simply by its initials ISI) is Pakistan's premier intelligence agency. It is the largest of the three intelligence agencies of Pakistan, the others being the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Military Intelligence (MI). Its headquarters are in Abpara, Islamabad.

ISI was established as an independent intelligence agency in 1948 in order to strengthen the sharing of military intelligence between the three branches of Pakistan's armed forces in the aftermath of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947, which had exposed weaknesses in intelligence gathering, sharing and coordination between the Pakistan Army, Air Force and Navy.

ISI's headquarters are situated in Islamabad. It is currently headed by Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, who took over as ISI's Director in September 2008.

Director : Ahmad Shuja Pasha
Department : Pakistani Armed Forces 

Established : 1948

Major departments:

Joint Intelligence X (JIX)
Joint Intelligence Bureau (JIB)
Joint Counter Intelligence Bureau (JCIB)
Joint Intelligence North (JIN)
Joint Intelligence Miscellaneous (JIM)
Joint Signal Intelligence Bureau (JSIB)
Joint Intelligence Technical (JIT)



History ISI

After independence in 1947, two new intelligence agencies were created in Pakistan: the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Military Intelligence (MI). However, the weak performance of the MI in sharing intelligence between the Army, Navy and Air Force during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947 led to the creation of the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in 1948. The ISI was structured to be manned by officers from the three main military services, and to specialize in the collection, analysis and assessment of external intelligence, either military or non-military.The ISI was the brainchild of Australian-born British Army officer, Major General R. Cawthome, then Deputy Chief of Staff in the Pakistan Army. Initially, the ISI had no role in the collection of internal intelligence, with the exception of the North-West Frontier Province and Azad Kashmir.

In the late 1950s, when Ayub Khan became the President of Pakistan, he expanded the role of ISI in monitoring opposition politicians, and sustaining military rule in Pakistan. The ISI was reorganised in 1966 after intelligence failures in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, and expanded in 1969. Khan entrusted the ISI with the responsibility for the collection of internal political intelligence in East Pakistan. Later on, during the Baloch nationalist revolt in Balochistan in the mid-1970s, the ISI was tasked with performing a similar intelligence gathering operation.

The ISI lost its importance during the regime of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who was very critical of its role during the 1970 general elections, which triggered off the events leading to the partition of Pakistan and emergence of Bangladesh.

After General Zia ul-Haq seized power in July 1977, the ISI was expanded by making it responsible for the collection of intelligence about the Sindh-based Pakistan Communist Party and various political parties such as the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)

The Soviet-Afghan war of the 1980s saw the enhancement of the covert action capabilities of the ISI by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). A special Afghan Section was created under the command of colonel Mohammed Yousaf to oversee the coordination of the war. A number of officers from the ISI's Covert Action Division received training in the US and many covert action experts of the CIA were attached to the ISI to guide it in its operations against the Soviet troops by using the Afghan Mujahideen.

Organization

ISI was founded by Lt.Col. Shahid Hamid in 14 July 1948. He was appointed by Sikandar Mirza who was the Defense Secretary. He was asked to set up the organization and did so with help from Maj. Gen. Bill Cawthorne - the then Deputy Chief of Staff, Pakistan Army. As this was an Inter Services Organization, the staff consisted of officers of all three services & civilians recruited through Public Service Commission. Lt. Col. Sahibzada Yaqub Ali Khan (Later Lt. Gen. and Foreign Minister Pakistan) served in ISI as GSO-1.

The original ISI building was in Karachi on the Junction of Abdullah Haroon Road (Old Victoria Street) and Hidayatullah Road, diagonally opposite Zainab Market.

Although he was requested to stay on, and was promised promotion to Maj. General in his job as DG ISI, he decided to leave as he wished to serve in the regular Army. He left 20 June-1950 to command 100 Brigade in Peshawar, looking after the Khayber Pass and Landi Kotal.

ISI's headquarters are located in Islamabad and currently the head of the ISI is called the Director General who has to be a serving Lieutenant General in the Pakistan Army.[citation needed] Under the Director General, three Deputy Director Generals report directly to him and are in charge in three separate fields of the ISI which are Internal wing - dealing with counter-intelligence and political issues inside Pakistan, External wing - handling external issues, and Analysis and Foreign Relations wing.

The general staff of the ISI mainly come from paramilitary forces and some specialized units from the Pakistan Army such as the some chosen people from special services group(SSG) .[citation needed] According to some experts the ISI is the largest intelligence agency in the world in terms of number of staff. While the total number has never been made public, experts estimate about 10,000 officers and staff members, which does not include informants and assets.

Departments
Joint Intelligence X, coordinates all the other departments in the ISI. Intelligence and information gathered from the other departments are sent to JIX which prepares and processes the information and from which prepares reports which are presented.
Joint Intelligence Bureau, responsible for gathering political intelligence. It has three subsections, one divided entirely to operations against India.
Joint Counterintelligence Bureau, responsible for surveillance of Pakistani diplomats abroad, along with intelligence operations in the Middle East, South Asia, China, Afghanistan and the Muslim republics of the former Soviet Union.
Joint Intelligence North, exclusively responsible for the Jammu and Kashmir region.
Joint Intelligence Miscellaneous, responsible for espionage, including offensive intelligence operations, in other countries.
Joint Signal Intelligence Bureau, operates intelligence collections along the India-Pakistan border.
Joint Intelligence Technical

In addition, there are also separate explosives and a chemical warfare sections. 

Lt Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha

Directors General        

Colonel Syed Shahid Hamid 1948-1950
Major General R. Cawthome. 1950-1956
Brig Riaz Hussain. 1959 - 1966
Maj Gen (then Brig) Mohammad Akbar Khan.[6] 1966 - 1971
Lt Gen (then Maj Gen) Ghulam Jilani Khan. 1971 - 1978
Lt Gen Muhammad Riaz. 1978 - 1980
Lt Gen Akhtar Abdur Rahman. 1980 - March 1987
Lt Gen Hamid Gul. March 1987 - May 1989
Lt Gen (retd) Shamsur Rahman Kallu. May 1989 - August 1990
Lt Gen Asad Durrani. August 1990 - March 1992
Lt Gen Javed Nasir. March 1992 - May 1993
Lt Gen Javed Ashraf Qazi. May 1993 - 1995
Lt Gen (then Maj Gen) Naseem Rana. 1995 - October 1998
Lt Gen Ziauddin Butt . October 1998 - October 1999
Lt Gen Mahmud Ahmed. October 1999 - October 2001
Lt Gen Ehsan ul Haq. October 2001 - October 2004
Lt Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. October 2004 - October 2007
Lt Gen Nadeem Taj. October 2007 - October 2008
Lt Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha. October 2008–Present

Headquarters=

The ISI headquarters are in Abpara, on the outerlying parts of Islamabad. The complex consists of various adobe building separated by lawns and fountains. The entrance to the complex is next to a private hospital. Declan Walsh of The Guardian said that the entrance is "is suitably discreet: no sign, just a plainclothes officer packing a pistol who direct visitors through a chicane of barriers, soldiers and sniffer dogs" Walsh said that the complex "resembles a well-funded private university" and that the buildings are "neatly tended," the lawns are "smooth," and the fountains are "tinkling." He described the central building, which houses the director general's office on the top floor, as "a modern structure with
 around, echoing lobby