The news, since contradicted, about the government placing the Inter Services Intelligence Directorate under the ministry of interior, draws attention to the action taken by the PPP government in 1975 when the ISI was given a political role by the government of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to assist it in influencing politicians and political parties. Later, in President Ghulam Ishaq Khan's time, this function was increased to distributing money amongst politicians. The ISI Directorate has been functioning directly under the president, though it was nominally under the prime minister. It had been created earlier in Ayub Khan's time to coordinate the functions of the Intelligence Directorates of the three defence services. This coordination related only to military matters. In fact the Intelligence Directorates of the three defence services functioned largely independently with very little interference or control by the director of the ISI. It had very little to do with Air Force or Naval intelligence before the 1965 war. In fact the performance of the PAF in that war was partly due to the inability of the ISI, whose military functions were controlled largely by the C-in-C of the Pakistan army to influence the PAF's plan of action. Rather than place the ISI squarely under the defence services and limit its functions to purely military matters the government apparently wants to use its considerable political clout to strengthen the political strength of the ruling party in power. Whereas it has been largely controlled by the president - and by the prime minister only in name. The government is likely to bring it under its political control along with other intelligence agencies. If this is done, the ISI, a purely military organisation will be drawn openly into political matters without even the faade of a military role. If the problem is that the government feels that it does not have full control of the ISI's civilian functions, the solution is not to place the ISI under the ministry of interior but to separate its civilian functions from its military responsibilities and place these civilian functions under a civilian intelligence agency or under the interior ministry. My case against the ISI has been pending in the Supreme Court since 1999 and since the take over by General Pervez Musharraf, no chief justice, including Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, has thought it fit to hold a hearing in spite of my repeated requests. Now with the PPP government in control of its functions, it is inevitable that the ISI will be used by the government for civilian functions. Amongst these will be the strengthening of the political position of the party in power. The step taken by the Late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1975 will then be brought to its logical conclusion by his political successors. The right thing to do would be to place the ISI under the Joint Chiefs of Staff and limit it strictly to its military functions. The civilian aspect of its responsibilities should be transferred to the Directorate of Intelligence Bureau or any other civilian agency and the armed forces should have nothing to do with these functions. To allow services officers to dabble in political matters, as has been done for over thirty years, amounts to inviting the armed forces to interfere in politics. In carrying out these functions, which they have been doing for all this time, the armed forces develop contacts with politicians and develop an unhealthy interest in political affairs. This is fraught with dangers for the survival of democracy and has been shown by the repeated take over of the government by generals. The present chief of the army staff has been the head of the Inter Services Intelligence until recently. He, therefore, must have a very good understanding of national politics and of our political leaders. It is our good fortune that he has so far confined himself strictly to his professional duties. Let us pray that he will continue to do so. The writer is a political analyst