Who is responsible for the proliferation of the intelligence agencies in Pakistan?

[Scarface]

@Zakk

Broadly speaking there is only one agency that is the ISI, there have been brief periods where it’s dominance has been challenged but its never lost its dominance. The key moment for the ISI was post 1979 invasion of Afghanistan..it was empowered in terms of money, training and equipment and given the strategic depth with an Islamic twist ideology. After that the rest as they say is history..I vaguely remember a figure (can’t remember the exact quote) that there are approximately 2 ISI officers for every district in Pakistan.

The agencies did have a role before 1979, Ayub Khans election, the creation of the republican party, trying to manipulate the 1970 election and so on..but in those days the civil service was still immensely powerful so there role wasn’t as pronoinced.

You sound biased or your information is incorrect. Rigging elections and politics by ISI was started by Bhutto by creating its political wing which is still in existence.

As far as the independence ISI gained during and after Afhgan war is concerned, Musharraf took care of that and brought it under army’s control. This fact has been mentioned by some foreign analysts.

Now there is nothing different ISI does that an intelligence agency is not supposed to do. I would say they are much more ethical and professional than RAW and obviously much more than CIA.