Lt Gen Faiz Hameed: appointed Pakistan’s new ISI chief

Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed, was appointed by Pakistan military as the new Director-General of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the military-led powerful spy agency.

Though by convention it is the Prime Minister of country who appoints ISI chief in consultation with Army chief per the Constitution, bout in reality it is the Army who decides who he wants in job. Also, the DG ISI is answerable only to the Army chief and not Prime Minister.

About Lt Gen Faiz Hameed

Post his appointment as DG of ISI, Faiz replaced its current head Lieutenant General Asim Munir, who was appointed to head ISI only eight months ago, following the retirement of his predecessor Lt Gen Naveed Mukhtar. He is believed to be a close aide of Pakistan’s Army Chief Gen Qamar Bajwa.

Prior to this Lt Gen Faiz previously served as the head of ISI’s Counter Intelligence wing. On 12 April 2019, he was promoted to the rank of Lt. General and later that month was named as Adjutant General at General Headquarters (GHQ). GHQ is the Headquarters of Pakistan Army located in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

About ISI

It was founded in 1948 as an independent unit to strengthen Pakistan’s intelligence network. The ISI was earlier a part of Intelligence Bureau (IB), which handled intelligence-sharing between different branches of Pak’s military, as well as external intelligence gathering. In 1950, ISI was officially handed over the task of safeguarding Pakistani interests and national security, inside and outside country.

Initially it was headquartered in Rawalpindi, but later HQ was moved to Islamabad.

The ISI, with its exceptionally large say in national politics and foreign policy, is also not least in shaping Pakistan’s mullah-military alliance and is today among the world’s most significant intelligence agencies.

Month: Current Affairs - June, 2019