Pakistan's former ISI chief Faiz Hameed taken into military custody: PAK Army

In an unprecedented move the Pakistan Army on Monday announced that it has arrested former ISI chief Lt Gen retd Faiz Hameed and initiated court martial proceedings against him in connection with a housing scheme scandalComplying with the orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan a detailed court of inquiry was undertaken by Pakistan Army to ascertain correctness of complaints in Top City Case made against Lt Gen Faiz Hameed Retdrdquo the InterServices Public Relations ISPR the media wing of the army said in a statementConsequently appropriate disciplinary action has been initiated against Lt Gen Faiz Hameed Retd under provisions of the Pakistan Army Act it saidIn addition multiple instances of violation of the Pakistan Army Act postretirement have also been established The process of Field General Court Martial has been initiated and Lt Gen Faiz Hameed Retd has been taken into military custody it addedLt Gen retd Hameed was considered extremely powerful when he headed the spy agency from 2019 to 2021He was appointed to the coveted post when then ISI chief and current Army chief Lt Gen Asim Munir was prematurely removed from the post It was reported then that then prime minister Imran Khan was not happy with MunirLater the army decided to replace Hameed a move vehemently opposed by Imran Khan and it is believed that it was the beginning of souring of his ties with the powerful militaryThe Top City case made headlines when on November 8 2023 Moeez Ahmed Khan the owner of Top City filed a petition in the Supreme Court in which he accused Hameed of misusing his authorityHe stated in the petition that on May 12 2017 at the behest of Gen Hameed ISI officials raided the top city office and his house and seized valuables including gold diamonds and moneyHe also stated that Sardar Najaf the brother of Hameed also contacted him to resolve the issue later The petition also claimed that Gen Hameed later personally met him to resolve the issue He alleged that the ISI officials extorted Rs 4 crore cash from himA threejudge bench of the Supreme Court which included Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Qazi Faiz Isa Justice Attar Minullah and Justice Aminuddin heard the case and decided to send it to the Ministry of Defence for probing the allegationThe army announced in April this year that it constituted a highlevel inquiry committee headed by a major general to look into the allegationsHameed took premature retirement in November 2022 four months before his retirement date after the current army chief took over He was considered close to then Army chief Gen Qamar BajwaThe post of ISI chief is considered one of the most important in the Pakistan Army which has ruled the country for more than half of its 76plus years of existence and has hitherto wielded considerable power in matters of security and foreign policyThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever