Issue Brief April 2023
The Pakistan Army continues to play an influential part in politics of the country. It has been doing so for decades. Besides overthrowing elected governments to take over the reigns of the country, the Generals have often acted as kingmakers, keeping elected representatives bogged down in corruption and ineptitude.
The army’s key instrument in running its political agenda has been its intelligence wing, ISI. The earliest documented case of ISI’s manipulation of political situation dated back to the late 1960s when violent religious demonstrations were orchestrated throughout the country on the issue of a book written by a Jewish author of Indian descent, which reportedly denigrated the Prophet. The ISI was working on the orders of General Yahya Khan to create a religious opposition to Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s political aspirations. Since then, the army’s political engineering has become deep and expansive.