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Islamabad: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was forced to rescind his orders bringing the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB) under civilian control after President Pervez Musharraf intervened, sources said yesterday.
The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)-led coalition government had Saturday issued a notification placing the ISI and the IB under the direct charge of the interior ministry but withdrew this less than 10 hours later early on Sunday, saying the media had "misunderstood" the order.
'Jumping in'
"The government acted on its own and the concerned authorities were not taken into confidence," a senior government official said, adding that the "presidency had to jump in, forcing the government to withdraw the notification".
The confusion about the reporting line of the ISI was created on the day when Gilani left for Washington for a meeting with US President George W. Bush and when the ISI was facing criticism from two of Pakistan's neighbours - Afghanistan and India - for its alleged involvement in bomb blasts in their countries, as also from the US for its failure to control terrorism.
Musharraf, who still enjoys the confidence of the Bush administration for his efforts to curb extremism, is said to have called a "mediator" to convey to PPP co-chair Asif Ali Zardari the possible fallout of the decision to change the ISI's status.
"It is a myth that Musharraf has lost the confidence of Americans or the Pakistan Army that he headed for about eight years," the official said, requesting anonymity.
According to the official, the ISI's role is not limited to the internal security but encompasses international "counter-intelligence" to safeguard national interests.
"The government's protestations notwithstanding, foreign political circles [Indian, Afghan and the US] have been pointing a finger at the ISI whenever their interests were affected," an editorial in The Nation newspaper said.
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