The ISI chief says no to press
Islamabad, Pakistan: The newly appointed ISI Chief Lt. General Nadeem Anjum has asked media authorities to avoid posting his images or videos from the official meetings that he attends.
Prime Minister Imran Khan presided over a meeting of the National Security Committee on Monday. Members of the committee, including Director General ISI, attended the meeting. However, images and video footage released by the government showed almost everyone else except the country’s top spymaster.
When asked why a minister on condition of anonymity told ‘The News International’ that it is a standing instruction from the incumbent DG ISI for all concerned not to release any of his pictures or video footage from any official meeting that he attends. The minister was hesitant to state this publicly.
The minister went on to say that, for the same reason, no pictures or video footage of him have been released to the media since his appointment as DG ISI.
While commenting on it, Lt-Gen (retd) Amjad Shoaib stated that the basic principle of intelligence services is to stay out of the media’s way. He mentioned that there had been violations of the principle in the past and that governments had released images and video footage of intelligence chiefs to the media on several occasions.
According to Shoaib, the intelligence chiefs should not be shown in the media or on television screens. In general, he explained, spymasters are not recognized in public throughout the world for the same reason.
Maj General(retd) Ejaz Awan, who previously served in the ISI, said that the new DG ISI appears to be following the pattern of doing his work without being publicized.
Awan recalled being told by his DG ISI General (retd) Ahsan when he was appointed as ISI Sector Commander Lahore that “you would be a good intelligence operator if you roam around Lahore and no one notices you and no one recognizes that the ISI Sector Commander is here”. People should not be able to tell who the intelligence operator is by looking at them, he added.
