Defective ISI decision highlights need for return to basics

The Pakistan People's Party government has been belabored sufficiently for its breathtakingly defective decision to place the ISI under the Ministry of Interior, which it had to revoke hastily. Now it would be more constructive to consider timely measures to return to basics in administration. This is what the democratic government needs to do if it is serious about tackling the real problems of the country.

People have suggested that the Americans were responsible for forcing the government to take this misstep of trying to place the ISI under Interior. One finds this hard to believe. The Americans are not that naïve.

A more probable explanation is someone else really goofed up. Perhaps, the concerned bureaucrats were either afraid to advise the government, or they were not consulted. What is difficult to comprehend is how ministers in government could have been oblivious to the existing power realities, in particular the key role of the ISI and its subordinate relationship to the Chief of Army Staff. The ISI may have a large measure of operational autonomy but its head, a 3-star general, comes directly under the army chief.

Recently the country passed a milestone of sorts without anybody noticing. One of the last public servants to have joined the Foreign Service under Ayub Khan, foreign secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan was forced to leave his post because he dared to advise the government on the correct course of action on a foreign policy issue. One is also saddened by news reports that our permanent representative to the UN in New York ambassador Munir Akram may be leaving government service. What the embattled government needs is public servants of their courage and caliber.

The rise of the Taliban may be the most talked about issue, at least overseas, but for the population at large the scarcity of wheat flour, and the rising prices of edible oil, sugar, lentils and petroleum products, and the load-shedding of electricity in hot weather, are more pressing concerns that could derail the government.

Failure to address these problems on a war footing is already eroding the government's credibility. And without honest, upright administrators who enjoy reasonably secure tenure to advise the government and help it carry out its mandate it will be never be possible to solve these problems.