A Shakeup at the Top of Pakistan's Powerful Spy Agency

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http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1845891,00.html

Pakistan may now enjoy what seems to be healthy if noisy democracy, but the office of army chief remains the most powerful in the country — certainly exceeding the effective control of any politician or civilian bureaucrat. And now, Pakistan's army chief Gen. Ashfaq Kayani is showing he is truly in charge of the military — and hence the most powerful man in the country.

Just before midnight on Sept. 29, Kayani replaced the head of the country's premier intelligence agency and elevated a slew of hand-picked generals to key positions in a major shake-up of the military leadership. The most striking appointment is the decision to promote Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shujaa Pasha as the new head of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), one of the world's most powerful spy agencies — routinely described, and decried, as "a state within a state." Gen. Pasha, who had headed military operations in the tribal areas, replaces Lt. Gen. Nadeem Taj — an appointee and relative of recently departed president and ex-army chief Pervez Musharraf, who was infamous for intertwining military and political affairs.

The reshuffle comes at a sensitive time for Pakistan's half-million-strong and nuclear-armed military. In the Bajaur tribal agency along the Afghan border and in the Swat valley, it is locked in fierce and enervating military operations against the Pakistan Taliban. At the same time, the army's relations with its sponsors in Washington have sunk to a fresh low after the ISI was accused of aiding Taliban militants, and the ensuing breakdown in communication between the U.S. and Pakistan saw a flurry of unauthorized American airstrikes target militants in the tribal areas. U.S. Special Operations forces also mounted their first known ground assault within Pakistani territory this month.

Some observers in Pakistan criticized the personnel shakeup as a response to U.S. pressure. They came just weeks after U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Richard Boucher, publicly demanded that reform of the ISI be carried out. They also followed last weekend's secret meeting between Pakistan's recently elected president, Asif Ali Zardari, and CIA head Michael Hayden about what the U.S. intelligence agency called the "double game played by Pakistan's spy agency." While in New York City for the United Nations General Assembly, Zardari told Roger Cohen of the New York Times: "The ISI will be handled, that is our problem. We don't hunt with the hound and run with the hare, which is what Musharraf was doing."

However, others argue against the notion that the U.S. forced the reforms on Islamabad. The timing of the promotions was not extraordinary and had been made "on the basis of merit," says Talat Masood, a retired general turned military analyst. "These postings were in the normal course of events, with many of the officers due for rotation or retirement," he says. "Gen Kayani used this opportunity to bring in new people according to his ."