<b>"Syrupy" Jalebi News!</b>
[center]<b><span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'>Non-thinking tanks</span></b>[/center]
[center]<b><span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>With the change in the government, the head of govt institutes are also changed. Dr Shireen Mazari's ouster is a case in point
<i>Nadeem Iqbal</i></span></b>[/center]
<b>It looks like a revenge scene from a movie but it has actually happened. After eight long years, Dr Tanvir Ahmed Khan, a former foreign secretary, reclaimed the title of Director General Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI), a post he lost to Dr Shireen Mazari in August 2002.
Despite the fact that Dr Shireen has been unceremoniously removed from the post at least 15 months before the expiry of her contract in August 2009, she has earned the distinction of being the longest serving DG of the Foreign Office-controlled think tank.</b>
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Dr Tanvir's held the post between 1998-2000. He was appointed around the time of the May 1998 nuclear detonation, and was in the lead of the pro-bomb lobby in Pakistan. However, after Gen Musharraf took over he lost favour with the military and was replaced by the hawkish Shireen Mazari.
Shireen Mazari reacted angrily on the termination of her contract on May 14. She told the media that the news of her removal was conveyed to her by the new foreign secretary Salman Bashir. She likened her removal to the sacking of former foreign secretary Riaz Muhammad Khan. She claimed the United States government had influenced her removal as she was writing hard-hitting articles highlighting US intervention in internal Pakistani affairs.
Riaz Mohammad Khan who took over as the Foreign Secretary in Feb 2005 was sacked by the PPP government last month. His term in office was due to end on Oct 1, 2008
Mazari also claimed that on May 15 she was ordered to leave the office in 15 minutes as the new DG was to take over.
Clarifying, a foreign office spokesman said: "Dr Shireen Mazari had been Director General of ISSI since August 2000. She has been the longest serving Director General of the Institute. There is no particular reason to replace Dr Mazari. Dr Mazari was a contract employee and had served with great distinction. All her contract terms will be honoured. Dr Tanvir Ahmed Khan, who is a distinguished scholar and former Foreign Secretary, will take over as the new Director General (ISSI)."
During her stint in ISSI, Mazari was more recognised for her hard-hitting views reflecting some portions of the establishment.
She has close relations with Mushahid Husain Syed, PML-Q secretary general and his wife Dushka Syed, a professor in Quaid-e-Azam university. Mushahid, a confidante of Nawaz Sharif was briefly detained after Sharif's removal but later he became an ardent supporter of Musharaf's regime.
Along with Dushka Syed, Shireen was also seen leading civil society protests in 2006 against conversion of a public park into a mini-golf court by the Capital Development Authority and in 2007 against Jamia Hafza dubbing it 'MullaGardi'. Recently she was seen openly criticising US policies and visits of PPP co-chairperson to the residence of the American ambassador.
Dr Tanvir, who had served in Benazir Bhutto's first government as foreign secretary in the late 1980s, has gradually shifted from his PTV-friendly hawkish views to a more diversified outlook on security issues. In fact after his removal as DG ISSI he gradually became a leading critic of the military-led government.
Last year he was present at the launch of Ayesha Siddiqa Agha's controversial book Military Inc. at a time when the government forbade all hotels and clubs not to give a place for the function.
In December last year, while opposing the Musharraf emergency, he was part of 20 former ambassadors and foreign secretaries who called upon Musharraf to restore the rule of law and reinstate senior judges.
Later, he also supported the PPP position that Benazir Bhutto's murder investigations should be done under UN.
Dr Khan said the government had offered him four positions including that of DG ISSI. Out of those, he must have preferred going back to his old job.
<b>Islamabad has three think tanks -- Institute of Regional Studies (IRS), ISSI and Islamabad Policy Research Institute. Their functions are not much different from each other. Over the years these think tanks have failed to produce any original work that could influence or change the country's regional or domestic policy. Most of the research done by these institutes is based on secondary sources. They are mainly following the official line on controversial issues.</b> <!--emo&:flush--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /><!--endemo-->
ISSI is mainly seen as a think tank made for retired foreign secretaries who are accommodated as its DGs and Chairmen. During Dr Tanvir's first stint, there was no chairman but later Aga Shahi became its chairman. After his demise now former foreign secretary and minister Inamul Haq has been serving as its chairman. ISSI has two directors and seventeen research fellows.
IRS, controlled by federal information ministry, is considered a post-retirement place for military officers. Since its inception in 1982, many retired military men have served it as its president. Many of them developed the required academic credential while on the job.
The incumbent president Maj Gen. (Retd.) Jamshed Ayaz Khan took over in April 2002. Before joining the Institute, he served as Additional Secretary Defense Production (DP) Division of the Ministry of Defense from 1999-2001.
The nascent IPRI was established by a group including Shireen Mazari, Mushahid Husain and Gen Syed Rafaqat, who was also the founder president of the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI). But soon controversy struck and the president was replaced by Brig (Ret) Sahukat Qadir who was also forced to resign.
Since Oct 2000, Dr. Pervaiz Iqbal Cheema, a academician who previously served as the Chairman of International Relation's Department as well as Defence and Strategic Studies Department of Quaid-e-Azam University, has been working as IPRI's President.
<b>It has been a tradition that with the change in the government the head of these institutes are also changed. <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>No wonder Shireen's ouster was seen as the first in line.</span></b>
Cheers <!--emo&:beer--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' /><!--endemo-->
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