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Pakistan's eight-month-old civilian government has disbanded the political wing of the military's main spy agency to concentrate its focus on counter-terrorism, the foreign minister said on Sunday.
Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate is regarded as vital to the West in fighting the threat of al Qaeda globally, and defeating the Taliban insurgency in neighbouring Afghanistan.
But, often referred to by critics as a "state within a state", the ISI is feared by neighbouring Afghanistan and India. Pakistan's civilian leaders have suspected it of involvement in the overthrow of their governments in the past.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, according to the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan, said the political wing of the agency had been disbanded, describing it as a "positive development".
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