RPT-ANALYSIS-Pakistan's ISI move helps prospects for democracy

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By Simon Cameron-Moore

ISLAMABAD, Nov 24 (Reuters) - When an Islamist militant uprising erupted at Islamabad's Red Mosque last year, one member of the cabinet asked the then Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, how Pakistan's spies could report what he had for dinner, but not know what was going on around the corner from their own HQ.

"When I said this, the whole cabinet started clapping," said Ishaq Khan Khakwani, who months later quit the Aziz government in protest over army chief Pervez Musharraf's unconstitutional manoeuvres to hold onto the presidency.

On Sunday, a minister in the civilian government that brought the Musharraf era to an end revealed that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate had quietly ditched the section responsible for spying on Pakistani politicians in order to save its energies for fighting terrorism.

The implications are almost entirely domestic, and have little bearing on Pakistan's foreign policy and the ISI's role.