Confusion prevails over who controls ISI

Islamabad: Confusion continues over the Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) agency's reporting line, with the order transferring it from the prime minister's secretariat to the interior ministry not having been formally withdrawn.

This has "raised the question whether the government has again changed its mind and decided to keep the agency under the interior ministry", The News said on Saturday.

On July 26, within hours of a Cabinet Division notification bringing the ISI as well as the Intelligence Bureau (IB) under the interior ministry, the government clarified that the ISI would continue to function under the prime minister and that the earlier notification had been misinterpreted.

Most newspapers and TV channels reported the next day that the government had stepped back on the issue amid reports that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had reversed the decision after receiving two emergency calls made at the behest of President Pervez Musharraf.

On the files, however, "the situation is just the same as it was on June 26, and ISI and IB stand transferred to the interior ministry," The News said.