ISLAMABAD: Former spy chief Lt Gen (retd) Asad Durrani has admitted thatISI Political Cell was established by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1975. It wasrecommendation of some board. A study was carried out for this. It ispossible that the mandate and name was different but it carried outpolitical assessment ahead of 1990 polls.

DG ISI reports to PM as Chief Executive, President as head of thestate/C-in-C and also briefs three chiefs [three armed forces].

the ‘Political Cell’ of ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) carried out apolitical assessment ahead of the 1990 elections. The former directorgeneral of ISI also admitted that the-then Chief of Army Staff GeneralMirza Aslam Beg was his boss and was in the know.

COAS [Aslam Beg] was my boss,” Gen Durrani’s startling revelations came aspart of his statement to a team of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA)probing the alleged distribution of estimated Rs148 crores amongpoliticians to pollute the 1990 polls in the country.

Before this, Gen Mirza Aslam Beg claimed that he had vehemently warnedthe-then spy chief Gen Durrani against dragging the military into”political engineering” ahead of the 1990 polls. “I warned Durrani to becareful in handling of those [ISI] funds. After this, I never againdiscussed this matter with him [Durrani].

I gave him no names of politicians or the money to be distributed, becausethis was entirely his domain, and he was responsible to report to thepresident,” Gen Beg revealed in his written statement submitted to the FIAand the apex court.

Gen Durrani also admitted in the same affidavit that “ISI mandate is notassessing political scenario. They do carry our counter intelligencerelated to foreign issues.

Assessment is not our mandate. Internal security situation as DG ISI. Itwas reasonable. Except for ‘maham’ in Karachi [in early 1990s].”