The Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (also Inter-Services Intelligence or ISI) is the largest intelligence service in Pakistan. It is one of the three main branches of Pakistan's intelligence agencies. This is the 1st line of defense and all employees are the defenders of nations working like a solid metallic wall against the enemies. The intelligence officers, who are mostly hired from the three armed forces, (i.e. Pak Army, Pak Air-force & Pak Navy) are very much loyal and devoted to their people and country. They know how to tackle and handle the threats and the enemies of the nation very efficiently. They put Country/Nation first and Organization before self. Their all actions and deeds are based on the Teachings of Islam, Faith, Discipline, Unity, Truth, and uphold the highest standards of conduct.

 ISI is one of the best and very well organized, top ranking intelligence agency in the world. This organization is working under a predefined constitutional and legal frame work and who’s GD (Director General/Head - Lt. Gen) is completely answerable in front of the Head of the state and some times and in some cases in front of the Chief of the Army Staff.

Following are some of the facts about this esteemed, admired and fascinating organization.

History

After independence in 1947, and to safe guard the real national interests the two new intelligence agencies were created in Pakistan: the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Military Intelligence (MI). The Inter-Services Intelligence was created as an independent unit in 1948 in order to strengthen the performance of Pakistan's Military Intelligence with the coordination with in the all three forces. ISI was formerly in the Intelligence Bureau (IB), which handled intelligence sharing between the different branches of the military as well as external intelligence gathering. Its headquarters was initially located in Rawalpindi but later it was moved to Islamabad at Shahrah-e-Soharwardi.

Since beginning ISI had a perfect positive path and vision to safe guard the nation in every aspect. Its foundations were strong and its scope was very wide, clear and fascinating. In 1950 it was officially given the task to safe guard Pakistani interests and national security inside and outside the country. After playing the magnificent role and achieving almost all the difficult and impossible tasks in the war between Pakistan and India in 1965, “Gen. Ayub Khan” appointed “Yahya Khan” to chair a committee for the re-evaluation of this newly born ISI and its subdivisions to expand its scope due to its magnification performance. Gen. Ayub Khan entrusted the ISI with the responsibility for the collection of internal and external intelligence in all over the Pakistan. Later on, during the Baloch nationalist revolt in Balochistan in the mid 1970s, the ISI was tasked with performing a similar intelligence gathering operation.

After General Zia ul-Haq came into power in July 1977, the scope of ISI was more expanded by making it responsible for the collection of intelligence about all the Anti-Pakistani separatist parties specially those who were struggling for the division and separate land and which were provoked by the neighboring enemies.

The Soviet-Afghan war of the 1980s saw the enhancement of the covert action capabilities of the ISI with the support of U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). A special Afghan Section was created under the command of Colonel Mohammed Yousaf to oversee the coordination of the war. A number of officers from the ISI's Covert Action Division were specially trained by the Pakistani Army and ISI to guide it in its operations against the Soviet troops by using the Afghan Mujahideen. From 1983 to 1997, the ISI reportedly trained over 80,000 Afghan Mujahideen for campaigns in Afghanistan Jihad. At that time and under the leadership of one of the most famous generals and patriots, “Gen. Akhtar Abdur Rehman Shaheed” played a vital role to strengthen this organization. During the 1990s, the ISI grew into a powerful and questionable organization for the enemies of our beloved nation Pakistan.

After wining the afghan war and distributing the super power of that time in to smaller countries, the activities of the ISI became restricted and they were engaged again back to their core responsibilities of the internal and external security of Pakistan.

On September 2001, Parvaiz Musharraf appointed a new Director General for ISI, Lieutenant General Ehsanul Haq which was later on replaced by the Let. Gen. Shuja Pasha.