Friday, July 7 2006 16:33 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Islamabad: Launching a scathing attack on Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said the Army should be stripped of its role in the spy agency and it should be run on the lines of Indian intelligence agencies that function under the control of elected Governments.

In his biography "Ghadaar Kaun? Nawaz Sharif Ki Kahani, Unki Zubani", Sharif, who was toppled by the military in 1999, said he had received complaints from his Indian and Bangladeshi counterparts that the ISI was engaged in efforts to destabilise those countries.

In a chapter devoted to the ISI, Sharif said such was the contempt the Army generals had towards elected Prime Ministers of Pakistan that they did not hesitate to salute Indian leaders but declined to extend the same courtesy to elected leaders at home.

He claimed that during his tenure, two ISI generals proposed to him that the government should extend official patronage to the drug trade to improve the economy, but he shot this down.

In the book, a compilation of interviews by Pakistani journalist Sohail Waraiach, Sharif said during his tenure as prime minister he received serious complaints of the destabilising role played by the ISI in India and Bangladesh.

Sharif said when he attended an India-Pakistan-Bangladesh tripartite meeting in Dhaka during his second tenure, then Indian prime minister I K Gujral expressed 'good Sentiments' to improve ties with Pakistan but complained about sabotage activities being carried out ISI in India. Gujral told Sharif the ISI attempted to spread anarchy in India and carried out activities without the knowledge of the Pakistan government.