Pakistan’s military announced on Monday that it had detained the country’s former spy chief and initiated court-martial proceedings against him on charges of abuse of office, corruption and army regulation breaches.
The arrest of retired General Faiz Hameed, who served as the head of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) from 2019 to 2022, is unusual in Pakistan, where the powerful military has ruled for more than 30 years since the country gained independence in 1947 and continues to wield significant influence.
The head of ISI is regarded as the second most influential military officer in Pakistan after the army chief.
The military noted in Monday’s announcement that its actions had stemmed from a Supreme Court-ordered inquiry against Hameed. It stated that “multiple instances of violations of the Pakistan Army Act” after his retirement had “also been established” during the inquiry.
“The process of Field General Court Martial has been initiated, and Lt Gen Faiz Hameed (Retd) has been taken into military custody,” the statement read without elaborating on the allegation violations.
It is not possible to contact the former ISI chief for comment due to the military’s prohibition on access to officers in custody, let alone those facing court martial.
Hameed’s name was widely featured in local media for his alleged involvement in national politics and influence on journalists during his tenure as the ISI chief.
The general gained global attention when journalists captured his presence on camera in the lobby of a Kabul hotel shortly after the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in August 2021 as the U.S.-led Western forces withdrew following nearly two decades of involvement in the Afghan war.
During their presence in Afghanistan, Washington and allied nations had persistently accused the ISI of providing sanctuaries and covertly enabling Taliban leaders to orchestrate insurgent attacks from Pakistan against international forces on the Afghan side of the border.
Hameed was believed to be close to former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who appointed him to lead the ISI when he was prime minister.
Khan was ousted from power in 2022 through a parliamentary vote of no confidence that he alleges was orchestrated by the military leadership at the time, charges the army denies.
In the run-up to the vote, the deposed prime minister’s aides reported that he developed disputes with the military over whether Hameed should be retained as the ISI chief, as Khan desired.
“Pakistan has taken a massive and unprecedented step to court martial a former intel chief,” said Michael Kugelman, the director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington.
“However one chooses to look at this, given the current political circumstances, it is impossible to assess this development without keeping in mind Faiz’s known closeness to Imran Khan,” Kugelman wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Since his ouster from power, Khan has faced dozens of prosecutions on charges ranging from corruption, sedition and ordering violent protests against military installations across Pakistan, charges he rejects as frivolous and politically motivated.
Khan, 71, who remains the most popular politician in Pakistan, was sent to jail a year ago after being convicted in a controversial corruption case.
Appellate courts have since overturned or suspended all of his convictions and sentences due to a lack of evidence. However, authorities immediately filed new cases against Khan to keep him in jail.
