People went haywire last time I said the ISI is highly overrated intelligence organization which has failed to keep the Pakistani state insulated from the mess in Afghanistan. People claimed that the failure was a state wide rather than being attributable to one organization. But the ISI is part of the Pakistani military which is the de facto ruler of Pakistan. Pakistan’s political dysfunction is a function of the military’s gross political and governance interventions.
The fact that the ISI and the Pakistani military have persistently failed to hit senior TTP, ISIS & BLA targets in Afghanistan shows high organizational incompetence and dysfunction. Heck, the ISI and the Pakistani military even watched as one of the most vile TTP commanders Ehsanullah Ehsan escaped from their facilities.
This ongoing ‘operations’ is more of a political and PR stunt than any real military attempt to solve the TTP and BLA question. It has achieved exactly zero net impact. No senior TTP or BLA leaders killed or apprehended. No discernible drop in terror tempo. No nothing. It’s a total farce. For context, compare and contrast Israel’s operation in Iran and India’s operation in khashmir. India especially not only eliminated militant activities but is actively exporting militancy to Pakistan through BLA, TTP and Afghan Taliban.
But yes: the ISI is lumber one intelligence agency in the world
Who made that claim and why?
The ISI has mostly built up notoriety for being "involved" in a lot of things and overreach - overreach does not translate to competence and more importantly does not mean it always has the BEST resources available to it.
At the same time, you are using your tainted ideas of failure to disregard success the agency has had which may or may not be available to public due to the nature of operations.
The ISI is highly capable in covert action, proxy warfare, and internal security operations, able to manage complex networks of clients and militants over decades. EVERY agency in the world along with intelligence experts recognize it.
However, what you are terming under pointless demeaning terms is a case of enduring issues that hamper Pakistanis in working environments in general:
Competing priorities that cannibalize resources and operational effectiveness
Competing bosses/chains of command
Politicization, dual agendas, and lack of civilian oversight
The result is where you have success that would blow your mind in ways - and then broader failures because many of these successes cannot be made cohesive due to the overall structure of Pakistani establishment leadership.
