Zia was able to seize power with the help of his friend, ISI Director and Army General Gulam Jilani Khan. When Jilani retired, Zia made his biggest mistake of all, replacing him with a radical Moslem fundamentalist, Lieutenant General Hamid Gul.
It is Hamid Gul we can thank for the Taliban, Al Qaeda, and September 11.
As ISI Director, Gul persuaded Zia to impose Sharia law on Pakistan. It was Gul who let the Saudis establish Islamic schools or medressahs all over the country teaching Wahhabi Islamic radicalism.
It was Gul who insisted the bulk of all weapons and supplies to the Muj go to the one commander who hated America and was a pro-Khomeini fascist, [this is the man, he was speaking of in that article...he is an HVT by our military]Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
It was Gul who, when Gulbuddin proved incapable of taking Afghanistan over after the Soviet retreat, organized a group of stone-age Moslems in Kandahar called Taliban ("students') to overrun the country.
It was Gul who allowed Osama Bin Laden to establish his base of operations with the Taliban. In the two weeks immediately prior to September 11, Gul was in Afghanistan with Osama. Within hours after the terrorist attack on America, Gul, then back in Islamabad (Pakistan's capital) publicly announced it was perpetrated by the Jews of Israel's spy agency, Mossad.
It was Gul who protected Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Oadeer Khan and coordinated his program of selling nuclear secrets to such outlaw regimes as North Korea.
It was Gul who organized and supported the terrorist groups in Indian Kashmir, such as Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Toiba. Such support continues to this day.
It was Gul who organized the pro-Taliban, pro-Al Qaeda fundamentalist political party Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) that has seized political control of Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan and dominates Pakistan's national legislature.
And it is Gul who continues to ensure ISI support for the Taliban terrorists fighting American and coalition forces in Afghanistan.
It is absolutely astounding that neither the CIA nor Indian intelligence has had the competence and spine to rid the world of Hamid Gul years ago, that he is still alive and practicing his evil ways today.
Pakistan has no future until it rids itself of the ISI. The only institution capable of doing so is the Pak military, yet the ranks of its officers is riddled with ISI agents. The positive news is that as a whole, the Pak military officers hate the ISI.
They are led by Army Chief of Staff and current president of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, who overthrew the elected civilian leader Nawaz Sharif in a coup in 1999. Sharif was a stooge of Hamid Gul's, and had ordered that Musharraf be replaced with Gul's chief ISI lieutenant Khwaja Ziauddin.
Musharraf threw Sharif in jail, then exiled him. Since then, and especially since 9/11, Pakistani politics has essentially been a sub-rosa war between the Army and the ISI, between Musharraf and Gul.
Musharraf can't go after Gul directly, and feels he can wait him out, as Gul is now in his 80s. While he waits for Gul to die, Musharraf has been systematically purging the ISI of Islamic fundamentalists and steadily reducing its power. By now, there are 40% fewer ISI agents than in 1999 and Musharraf intends to keep going.
So there is hope for this country. While in India I was surprised to see so comparatively little change, in Pakistan I saw comparatively much more. This is not - repeat not - a radically Islamic country.
No doubt it is a fully Moslem country, but the key test is how women are treated. In the Pushtun tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan, women are only seen publicly in burqas (full body dress, just their eyes visible) and are rarely seen at all. Yet the Pushtuns form only about 7% of Pakistan's 165 million.
Women among the dominant ethnic group, the Punjabis, are far, far freer. Yes, most (not all) wear the hijab head scarf, but they work in offices everywhere and display a friendly, confidant competence. Billboards with attractive women's pictures are everywhere, advertising various Pakistani products.
Musharraf's current campaign is to repeal or seriously weaken the "Hoodood Ordinances" medievally restricting women's rights and freedom under the Sharia laws passed by Zia.
Pakistan has a very, very deep hole to pull itself out of. But its economy is improving, its people are hard-working and wonderfully friendly. I am coming away from here with more hope than I expected.
Once Gul dies, which hopefully will be soon, the purge of the ISI will accelerate. Musharraf's PML-Q party should win a controlling majority of parliamentary seats in the coming elections, while the radical MMA will be reduced. Musharraf will remain president.
That's if he stays alive. The ISI has made a number of attempts on his life, which is why he lives at Army Headquarters in Islamabad, not the Presidential Palace. Pervez Musharraf is the only thing holding Pakistan together right now.
Thanks for posting Dr. Wheeler’s insights.
That’s a very misleading article-firstly Hamid Gul was not appointed after Jilani.The fellow who came after Gul ,Akhtar A Rehman,led the ISI during the operations against the ISI for almost 7 years.
Gul headed the ISI from 1987 to 89 & his area of focus was Kashmir.Zia decided to impose the parallel Sharia system in 1980-long before Gul.
The ISI is the most misunderstood organisation in Pakistan & it’s intentionally kept that way-
IF the author bothered to look at the command structure,recruitment procedures & funding of the ISI-he would realise that the ISI is just a part of the army.