 "Pakistani military court sentences ex-ISI chief Faiz Hameed to 14 years")
In a first in Pakistan’s history, a military court has sentenced former ISI chief Faiz Hameed to 14 years of rigorous imprisonment
The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said on Thursday that Faiz was sentenced for engaging in political activities and violating the Official Secrets Act (OSA) at the conclusion of a court martial initiated against him on 12 August 2024.
Faiz is the first chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) —the all-powerful spy agency of Pakistan— to be court-martialled.
Faiz’s fall from grace began when his close association with former Prime Minister Imran Khan —who has also been in jail since 2023— turned him into an adversary of Pakistan’s current hybrid regime of Army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Faiz was tried on four charges related to engaging in political activities, violation of the OSA detrimental to the safety and interest of the state, misuse of authority and government resources, and causing wrongful loss to persons, the ISPR said in a statement, according to Dawn.
“After lengthy and laborious legal proceedings, the accused has been found guilty on all charges and sentenced to 14 years’ rigorous imprisonment,” the ISPR further said.
The ISPR added that a separate case for “fomenting vested political agitation and instability in cohorts with political elements” is also in progress—an apparent reference to the accusation that he was part of anti-Army protests that Imran’s Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) party mounted on 9 May 2023.
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The Pakistani Army has previously said that Faiz’s case was linked to “events related to creating agitation and unrest, leading to multiple incidents including, but not limited to, 9 May 2023, for fomenting instability at the behest of and in collusion with vested political interests”.
On 9 May 2023, Imran’s supporters from PTI mounted nationwide protests that targeted the Pakistani Army. They vandalised residences of senior Army commanders and stormed the Pakistani Army headquarters in an unprecedented blow to the Army’s image of invincibility.
The rise and fall of Faiz Hameed
Faiz rose to infamy in August 2021 when he arrived in Kabul soon after the Taliban took over Afghanistan. His photo having tea in the Serena Hotel was widely circulated and seen as a sign of the Pakistani hand in the Islamist takeover of the country. But he retired in November 2022 as Munir took over as the Army chief.
Faiz retired months after Imran —whom he was seen as being close to— was ousted as the Prime Minister of Pakistan in April 2022 in a trust vote. Imran blamed his ouster on a conspiracy hatched by the then-Joe Biden administration of the United States along with the Pakistani military, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) of the Sharif family, and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) of the Bhutto-Zardari family.
Following his ouster, Imran and his supporters went after the Army in an unprecedented rejection of the force that has directly ruled Pakistan for almost half of its existence and indirectly controlled it since soon after its founding.
As the ISI chief, Faiz had been accused of plotting former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s ouster by influencing judicial proceedings in the Panama Papers case against him. He was also accused of helping Imran become the premier in 2018.
In October 2021, Faiz was replaced as the ISI chief even though reports said that Imran wanted to keep him in the post. But it was reported that then Army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa’s insistence meant that Faiz was moved out of the ISI to command the 11 Corps of the Pakistani Army, and Lieutenant General Nadeem Anjum was appointed as the chief of the ISI.
In August 2022, as it became clear that he was out of favour, Faiz was moved from the 11 Corps —one of the most important military formations in Pakistan— to command the 31 Corps. Weeks later, in November, he opted for voluntary retirement as Munir became the Army chief.
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