World Notes PAKISTAN

When she was elected to power last year, many wondered whether Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto would dare confront the nation's military establishment. Last week she did so, ordering the transfer of Hamid Gul, 52, the powerful head of the ISI, Pakistan's military-intelligenc e agency. A protege of the late President Zia ul-Haq, Gul has wielded enormous power ever since his appointment in 1987. Besides keeping tabs on Zia's political foes, including the Bhutto family, the ISI also distributed foreign money and arms to the mujahedin rebels fighting the Soviet-backed Najibullah regime in Afghanistan.

In addition to mutual distrust, Bhutto has valid reasons to sideline the intelligence chief. An ISI-orchestrated attack by Afghan rebels on Jalalabad, has degenerated into a protracted struggle and a propaganda victory for Najibullah. Bhutto was particularly enraged by what appeared to be ISI disinformation blaming her for the mess. Gul has also defied Bhutto by openly siding with the fundamentalists among the mujahedin. Bhutto has called the ISI's emphasis on a mujahedin military victory a "fundamental mistake." Gul's exit opens the way for a more flexible approach to helping resolve the Afghan war.