KARACHI, 10 November — The Pakistan government has confirmed for the first time that the country’s military wing, called the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had been involved in domestic politics, and that it had formed a multi-group alliance of rightist parties in 1990 to defeat the Pakistan People’s Party administration of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
The confirmation came from Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider, a former general, who told a radio press conference on Thursday night that the then ISI chief Gen. Hameed Gul, and a former army chief Gen. Mirza Aslam Beg, had formed the Islamic Jamhoori (democratic) Alliance to back in elections against the PPP.
Benazir and her party have been alleging that elections in 1990 were stolen against them, but authorities at that time, including the Pakistani election commission, which is headed by a Supreme Court judge, had ignored the protestation. Moin, who was part of the military then, demanded that both Hameed, and Aslam should be held accountable for the offense they had committed.
The Alliance, or IJI, as it was then called, had formed the government, after defeating Benazir in the elections. A Muslim League leader Nawaz Sharif had become the prime minister, but he too was removed from office after about three years. Moin said that the Aslam and Hameed had dabbled in politics without the knowledge of the army headquarters, which again was against service discipline, and an offense.
Moin said that Aslam and Hameed should be held accountable for creating IJI in 1988 against PPP without the knowledge and consent of the then army high command (GHQ). "It was all wrong and Hameed Gul must be questioned and be held accountable for his personal acts."
The minister severely criticized the former ISI chief and his blatant statements pouring in the national press since 1988 about his controversial role in creation of an alliance against a political party. The minister said he always stated that his (Hameed Gul’s) statements did not correspond to his assignment as a chief of sensitive intelligence agency.
According to a statement in The News daily newspaper, the minister, in reply to a question, stressed that the army should also share the responsibility of strengthening the religious groups and use them as a tool against the political parties and destabilize the democratically-elected governments in the country since 1985.
