Islamabad, Oct 23 (IANS): Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) disbanded its political cell five years ago, the government informed a Senate committee Monday.

Defence Secretary Lt. Gen. (retd) Asif Yasin Malik told the Senate Standing Committee on Defence that no political cell was operating in the ISI at present, the Dawn reported.

He also said that the US carried out drone attacks from the country's Shamsi air base with the government's approval.

The air base in Balochistan province was sub-leased to the US by the UAE in 2011 with the approval of then president Pervez Musharraf. It vacated the base Dec 11, 2011.

Malik informed the committee that the defence budget for the current fiscal year was Rs.545 billion, of which Rs.264 billion was allocated to the army, Rs.114 billion to the air force, Rs.52 billion to the navy, and Rs.92 billion to the ISI.

Malik told the committee that the US paid Rs.12 billion since 9/11, and that it had not made any payments to Pakistan over its use of the Shamsi air base.