A DANGEROUS trend has started in recent years in which former bosses of intelligence and security agencies have been narrating state secrets at public forums for self-projection.

This is a violation of the Official Secrets Act. The trend was started by the spilling of beans in the Asghar Khan case by fomer ISI chief retired General Asad Durrani, and earlier by former IB chief Major Masood Shareef (r) in the Midnight Jackal case. The latest addition is the book Spy Chronicles, co-authored by Asad Durrani.

I can say with hand over heart that unlike the examples quoted above, the Police Service of Pakistan (PSP) officers having spent a much longer time in security agencies have always maintained a dignified silence and avoided self-projection.

I think the state agencies should brief and debrief retired security officers on sensitive issues, with a view to taking stock of these activities. Whatever operational and institutional knowledge the security agencies’ former bosses come to possess is the state property. Their knowledge is not their personal asset because they came to know secrets through the state’s statutory authority, funds and state-owned material resources. Minus these, they were non-entities.

Rafi A. Pervaiz Bhatti
Lahore

Published in Dawn, June 10th, 2018