ISI has been interfering in Pak politics, says PPP leader

Lahore, July 29 : A senior PPP leader has reportedly said that the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) was one of the most efficient spy agencies in the world, but it was wrong on its part to create the IJI (Islami Jamhoori Ittehad), an alliance of nine political parties which played a key role in toppling the PPP government in 1988.

In a TV interview, PPP MNA Farzana Raja said that though the Army spokesman denies the ISI having a political wing, but it was an open secret that the IJI formed by the ISI was the real force behind the toppling of the PPP government.

IJI was formed in September 1988 to oppose the PPP in elections that year. The alliance comprised nine parties of which the major components were the Pakistan Muslim League, National Peoples Party and Jamaat-e-Islami, with PML accounting for 80 percent of the IJI's electoral candidates.

ISI under Lt Gen Hamid Gul had a major role in forming the center-of-right political alliance. Care had been taken to ensure that the alliance comprised nine parties to generate comparison with the nine-party Pakistan National Alliance (PNA) that had campaigned against Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1977.

Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi head of the alliance, but its most resourceful leader was Nawaz Sharif, a young industrialist then whom Zia ul-Haq had appointed chief minister of Punjab. Sharif was vying for control of the Pakistan Muslim League, which was headed at that time by former Prime Minister Muhammad Khan Junejo.

ANI