ISI clearance mandatory for visit to Pak, foreigners told

[Solid Beast]

In a major policy decision, the government has made it mandatory for the Pakistani missions abroad to issue visas to foreigners intending to visit Pakistan only after their clearance from the country’s top intelligence agency ISI.

Well-placed government sources told TheNation on Friday that the move had come after thorough deliberations and in view of the security situation in the country. Sources privy to these developments maintained that the decision had been taken after reports of undesired activities of some foreigners especially, the Americans and foreign journalists. According to the informed sources, the intelligence agencies have taken serious notice of the objectionable activities of some foreign journalists in Gilgit-Baltistan during the recent elections.

Sources said that under the new guidelines, the foreigners intending to visit Pakistan will have to give the purpose of their visit and duration of their stay with an NOC so as to hold them accountable. Sources further said that those whose visas had expired and needed short duration visa would have to go back to their respective countries in line with the new guidelines. Pakistani origin nationals from various western countries including the US would, however, go through the same Code of Conduct/procedure for their visas.

The Nation

[Solid Beast]

Please note, these security checks also apply to you Pakistani's living abroad in the West. The ISI just can't trust you anymore. They think people living outside Pakistan are the biggest threat to the country...it seems like nothing has been learned through this war on terror.

I personally feel that this is a disastrous policy and ISI should just be limited to their very specific and outlined duties (even though many of which have resulted in the deaths of Pakistani's and the erosion of Pakistani sovereignty and frankly made us a laughing stock of the world so I'm not exactly sure what these might be).

Will they be conducting circumcision checks at the airports now too? Idiots...this is a big step backwards.

What a message like this tells me is that first of all, it is a clear display of the total collapse of security in Pakistan. The government can't do anything in the field to stop the terrorism it once created so it is now reacting to this by empowering the same organs of state it vowed to curb and curtail as it knows no other way to handle the escalating disaster. Secondly I think that there is a bigger political connotation behind this message, one that shows the growing rift between the political establishment and that of the military. Even though Zardari stuffed much of the ISI and IB into the Interior Ministry, they are pretty much still run by the same shady corrupt unaccountable uniform hotshots, pretty much the same masterminds of projects such as Operation Taliban and the wasteful disaster known as Kargil. An intelligence agencies goal is to protect all of their citizens and national sovereignty at all costs...yet the ISI has directly resulted in scores of innocent Pakistani deaths, many of which they used and threw away like napkins, as well as a total disregard and erosion for Pakistan's national sovereignty. I don't want these same *holes doing checks on foreigners and expat ***** which will have negative impacts on tourism and how Pakistan is perceived in the world. I know they are not capable of honestly checking each visitor in an unbiased and open manner so it will do nothing for security. It's all politics and games of power as usual.

Pakistan has officially gone to the dogs.

[Solid Beast]

The boys in charge of your next visit to Pakistan! Enjoy your stay :D !

The military and state intelligence agencies like, Inter services Intelligence (ISI), the Military intelligence agency (MI), the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), the Pakistan Navy, and the Frontier Constabulary (FC) are prominent agencies among other agencies that are notorious in torturing people in custody. These agencies run their own torture cells in different cities, even in privately hired houses. There are 52 identified torture centres in Pakistan. Those persons arrested are held for prolonged lengths of time without their whereabouts known. The 'safe houses' maintained by the inter services intelligence (ISI) are the main torture centres that operate openly in central places in different cities including Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan.

Ahmed was 'viciously tortured by the ISI''. He was 'beaten with wooden staves . . . whipped with a 3ft length of tyre rubber nailed to a wooden handle, and...three fingernails were removed from his left hand.' After almost two weeks, he was visited by MI5 and MI6 officers. Their visits ceased after Ahmed described to them his treatment by the ISI, but he was later visited by an American intelligence officer.

The “war on terror” has intensified the use of torture in Pakistan. Those suspected of going against the government or allegedly conducting terrorist activities have been arbitrarily detained and tortured. The 'war on terror' has meant that in the name of national security torture has become legalized. Human rights are denied in which coerced confessions become admissible under provisions of the Anti-Terrorist Act. In its efforts to protect Pakistan's national security Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence has worked with the United States and the U.K. The ISI has provided assistance to the US and UK for combating their counter-terrorism operations. Cases have been documented in which British intelligence agencies, one of which the MI5 has allegedly colluded with the Pakistani authorities in detaining and torturing British Muslims. Interrogation procedures that have been aided by Pakistan's ISI have been utilized for extracting information.

Sources : Asian Human Rights Commission, United Nations, BBC