Lt gen rizwan akhtar biography of michael
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Inter-Services Intelligence
Military intelligence service of Pakistan
The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI; Urdu: بین الخدماتی استخبارات, romanized: bain-al-xidmātī istixbārāt) is the premier intelligence agency of Pakistan. It is responsible for gathering, processing, and analyzing any information from around the world that is deemed relevant to Pakistan's national security. The ISI reports to its director-general and is primarily focused on providing intelligence to the government of Pakistan.
The ISI primarily consists of serving military officers drawn on secondment from the three service branches of the Pakistan Armed Forces: the Pakistan Army, Pakistan Navy, and Pakistan Air Force, hence the name "Inter-Services"; the agency also recruits civilians. Since 1971, it has been formally headed by a serving three-star general of the Pakistan Army, who is appointed by the Prime Minister of Pakistan in consultation with the Chief of Army Staff, who recommends three
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Can Pakistan's new ISI spy chief Rizwan Akhtar restore security?
Many say Gen Rizwan Akhtar is likely to act no differently.
He steps into office at a time when there is a civilian government in power, and it is already under siege from two opposition groups.
And then there is the crucial question of Nato's planned pull-out from Afghanistan over the next three months. So, "what's in store for the ISI and its meddling in Afghanistan and the Taliban?" asks The Nation newspaper in an editorial.
The paper points to a controversy last year when as head of the paramilitary Sindh Rangers in Karachi, Gen Akhtar testified before the Supreme Court that a shipload of arms and ammunition brought in as Nato supplies had gone missing in Karachi.
Was this an insinuation that the Americans were arming insurgents in Karachi? Or was it a suggestion that someone who wielded influence in Karachi and had a use for those weapons stole them? At the time it was read by many as
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Washington Doesn’t Help Pakistani Democracy
Back in October 2013, inom argued in an op-ed that President Obama should use a visit bygd Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to bolster the Pakistani government’s role relative to the military. The imbalance in civil-military relations, I contended at the time, was indicative of an incomplete democracy. inom called on Washington to help strengthen civilian institutions such as Parliament and the police. “In a true democracy,” I wrote, “no institution, no matter how essential, should enjoy such unchecked power.”
Two years later, Sharif is back in Washington. Unfortunately, democracy in his country not only remains incomplete, but has also grown increasingly imperiled. In Pakistan, the idea of any semblance of a civil-military balance is a sham — and U.S. policy, unfortunately, helps widen the divide.
In the summer of 2014, an anti-government movement led by motstånd politician Imran Khan, and likely sponsored by the security establishment,