PAKISTAN'S powerful spy agency, the Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), has quietly shut down a unit that for decades spied on domestic politicians and exerted shadowy influence in affairs of state.
Analysts described the decision to deactivate the ISI's "political wing" as the latest in a series of steps meant to separate the army and the security apparatus from domestic politics - and also to rehabilitate the spy agency's battered public image.
The ISI, which nurtured the Taliban movement in the 1990s, has been dogged by allegations that elements within the agency are acting in concert with Islamic militant groups.
Those tensions came to a head earlier this year when US intelligence officials confronted Pakistan's new civilian government with evidence of ISI complicity in militant activities, including the July bombing of the Indian embassy in Afghanistan, and demanded agency reforms.
At the height of its powers, the ISI's secretive political wing rigged national elections and arrested and intimidated domestic opponents, according to public accounts provided by some retired ISI officials.
At times, the wing acted at the behest of elected governments. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the country's first popularly-elected prime minister, who was deposed and hanged by the military in the late 1970s, was the first to make active use of it.
But it also was accused of working to destabilise several administrations, particularly civilian ones. The wing was alleged to have arranged massive vote-rigging in a 2002 election that tightened Gen Pervez Musharraf's grip on power.
Pakistan has spent more than half its 61-year history under military rule, most recently under Gen Musharraf, who until late 2007 served as president and head of the army. He was forced to step down as president in August under threat of impeachment.
Word of the wing's dissolution emerged in Pakistani news reports over the weekend, subsequently confirmed by government officials. Few details were disclosed, including when the action was taken and whether the decision originated with the civilian government or within the ISI itself.
Foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said in a statement that the move would free the spy agency to concentrate on containing a burgeoning Islamic insurgency based in Pakistan's tribal areas along the Afghan border.
Some commentators, however, were sceptical as to the real scope of the change.
"Taken at face value, this is a commendable step in the right direction," the English-language daily newspaper Dawn said in an editorial on Tuesday. But it added: "Officially dismantling the ISI's political wing will be meaningless if meddling continues through unofficial channels. An entire mindset has to change."
The civilian government, in power less than a year, had some bruising early encounters with the ISI. In July, prime minister Yousaf Raza Gillani tried to bring the agency under formal civilian administration. He was forced to rescind the order within 24 hours.
But the army chief of staff, Gen Ashfaq Kayani - himself a former head of the ISI - has made it clear he wants the security establishment to renounce influence in policy matters. In September, Gen Kayani appointed a new ISI chief, Lieut Gen Ahmad Shujaa Pasha, replacing a Musharraf loyalist.
Lieut Gen Pasha visited Washington last month. Since then, there have been some signs of closer co-operation between the ISI and US intelligence.
"Maybe this is a symbolic first step toward establishing the supremacy of civilian authority, but the larger issue of civilian-military relations in Pakistan, including the ISI, will need to be watched for some years," said Rasul Baksh Rais, a Lahore-based political scientist and commentator. He noted that the decision to disband the political wing was easily reversible.