In relation to a land development case, Pakistan’s military announced on Monday that it had detained retired general Faiz Hameed, a former chief of the potent Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) organization.
In Pakistan, where the military has ruled for more than 30 of the 77 years since independence, the imprisonment of a prominent general is unprecedented.
The military claimed in a statement that the arrest was mandated by the Supreme Court and that other infractions of the Pakistan Army Act subsequent to Hameed’s retirement had also been shown. “The process of Field General Court Martial has been initiated and Lt Gen Faiz Hameed (Retd) has been taken into military custody,” the statement continued. It didn’t go into detail about the infractions.
From 2019 to 2021, Hameed served as the director general of the ISI. Shortly after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, after the United States and other Western forces left the region in 2021, he was caught on camera sipping tea in a hotel lobby in Kabul, which brought him widespread attention.
Washington had long accused the ISI of providing support to the Taliban when American-led forces entered Afghanistan in 2001.
After the army chief, the head of the ISI is typically regarded as Pakistan’s most powerful military officer.
Moreover, Hameed was thought to be close to Imran Khan, who appointed him to lead the ISI during his tenure as prime minister. Khan claims a vote of no confidence that removed him in 2022 was arranged by the military, a claim the military refutes. According to certain accounts in the local media, one of the points of contention between Khan and the military appeared to be Khan’s wish to retain Hameed as the head of ISI when his term concluded.
