ISLAMABAD: While Pakistan is making every effort to delink itself from the Mumbai terror strikes, there are many in the Zardari government who do not rule out the involvement of the country’s intelligence establishment.
Insiders in government reject the Indian conjecture that the Pakistani Army orchestrated the strikes to regain control of the country by sidelining president Asif Ali Zardari. They say New Delhi should have trained its guns on the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which has been uncomfortable with Zardari’s peace overtures since becoming president in September.
Probably that is why prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani agreed instantly to his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh’s demand to send the ISI chief to India after the Mumbai carnage, some senior officials said.
The distrust between the ISI and the government was growing much before the Mumbai strikes as they disagreed over how to conduct the war on terror and reform the intelligence set-up. Gilani’s failed attempt in July to place the agency under the interior ministry’s control added fuel to fire.
Official circles close to the presidency said general Ashfaq Kayani, the army chief, was not a war-monger and a power-hungry man like Pervez Musharraf. They said he has been trying to depoliticise the army.
