ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif has said former spymaster Lt. Gen. (retired) Faiz Hameed was involved in political events after his retirement, hours after the military announced it had arrested him and initiated court martial proceedings.
The Pakistan army’s media wing said on Monday the military had held a detailed inquiry against Hameed, a former chief of Pakistan’s premier Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency, in compliance with the orders of the Supreme Court on a petition filed by the management of the Top City housing society, which alleged extortion and land grabbing, among other charges, saying the ex-DG ISI had “misused” his office.
The army said other than the Top City case, multiple instances of violation of the Pakistan Army Act post-retirement had also been established against Hameed.
Speaking on the matter to Geo News on Tuesday night, Defense Minister Asif said the former general was interfering in politics after his retirement from the army in December 2022.
“General Faiz was definitely involved in the events that took place in the political scene post his retirement,” Asif told a private news channel on Monday night.
When asked about reports that Hameed was involved in May 9 riots last year by supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, the minister said it was a possibility.
“He might have provided a little bit of logistics and provided his experience of conspiracies and may have defined targets [for protesters] to inflict maximum damage,” Asif said. “You can say he might have had the role of a strategic adviser in the May 9 [attacks]. I can’t say with certainty, but the events and circumstances point toward him.”
Alleged supporters of ex-PM Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party attacked and damaged government and military installations on May 9, 2023, after his brief arrest that day in a graft case. The attacks took place a little over a year after Khan fell out with Pakistan’s powerful military, blaming the institution for colluding with his rivals to oust him from office in a parliamentary vote in April 2022. The military rejects the allegations.
Hundreds of PTI workers and leaders were arrested following the May 9 riots and some continue to remain behind bars as they await trial. The military has also initiated army court trials of at least 103 people accused of involvement in the violence.
Throughout his tenure as DG ISI from June 2019 till October 2021, Hameed was widely seen as being close to then prime minister Imran Khan, who has been in jail since August 2023 on a slew of charges that he says are politically motivated. Many of Khan’s closest associates are in jail or have left his party since last year.
In the past, Hameed was also accused by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of bringing down the government of his elder brother, Nawaz Sharif, in 2017. The PML-N alleges Hameed worked with then opposition leader Khan to plot Nawaz’s ouster through a series of court cases, culminating in the Supreme Court’s disqualifying of him from office in 2017 for failing to disclose income and ordering a criminal investigation into his family over corruption allegations.
Investigations against senior officers of the all-powerful army are extremely rare in Pakistan, where the military has ruled for almost half of the country’s history and wields extraordinary power even during periods of civilian rule.
Last month, a retired army officer, Lt. Col. Akbar Hussain, was convicted and sentenced to 14 years in prison for “inciting sedition among army personnel,” according to the Pakistani military.
