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Army purging pro-Sharief elements from ISI

An intense struggle involving the Military Intelligence, the Inter-Services Intelligence and the Intelligence Bureau had preceded General Pervez Musharraf's coup in Pakistan last week.

Three days after the coup the army raided IB units in Islamabad and four provinces and seized a large number of audio and video tapes showing that this agency had been monitoring General Musharraf's official and family meetings and the movements of other generals and top government functionaries.

The English-language daily The News said, the IB along with the ISI had been spying on the army generals on behalf of the Nawaz Sharief government. Lieutenant General Khawaja Ziauddin, who headed the ISI, had arrested one intelligence officer for tapping the phones of Sharief's family and some bureaucrats apparently on behalf of the MI. One colonel was shifted from the ISI on similar grounds.

The MI had been keeping a watch on Sharief's family. After the coup, the army jawans raided the Lahore residences of the family and seized sensitive gadgets used for intelligence purposes. It was acquired by Sharief when he became the prime minister.

Sharief allegedly increased funds for the intelligence agencies by at least ten times. The funds, however, ''at times were unduly used,'' the paper wrote.

In the last one year, Sharief had made massive changes in the IB and also in the Federal Investigation Agency for his own political sustenance. The ISI, which works for the armed forces, too, had been brought under the prime minister's control.

Now the military rulers are going to overhaul these agencies and weed out pro-Sharief elements. All officers in the IB have been told to report to the establishment division.

There are reports that the army has decided to sack at least 50 top officials of the FIA, who were allegedly appointed by Sharief in violation of the rules and regulations.

UNI

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