Pakistan Army on Wednesday appointed Lt General Faiz Hameed as the new Corps Commander Peshawar and Lt Gen Nadeem Ahmed Anjum appointed as DG ISI according to the Inter-Services Public Relations.

The ISPR also said that Lt General Asim Munir has been posted as the Quartermaster General and Lt General Muhammad Amir as Corps Commander Gujranwala.

General Hameed was serving as the DG Inter-Services Intelligence since June 2019.

Who is General Faiz Hameed?

In 2017 General Hameed was the head of the Counter Intelligence wing in the ISI.

He was a major figure in the 2017 negotiations with Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan’s then chief Khadim Hussain Rizvi who had staged a three-week sit-in at Faizabad Interchange in Islamabad, paralyzing the federal capital, according to a report by Samaa.

The TLP chief and his followers staged protests against Election Act 2017 by alleging the then sitting government for including a provision which would deny the finality of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in the act.

The then Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government denied the accusation and their attempts to negotiate with the TLP protesters failed after which they launched a police operation against the demonstrators. That also didn't succeed.

Later, Rizvi announced that an “army-brokered” agreement had taken place between the protestors and the government and he mentioned General Hameed's name as the person who resolved the issue.

Copies of the agreement featuring General Hameed's signature circulated social media for days with many users lauding the efforts of the army for resolving the issue of sit-in in Islamabad, according to the report.

In 2019 the Supreme Court issued a strongly-worded judgment in Faizabad sit-in case penned by Justice Qazi Faez Isa.

The apex court observed lapses on the part of the intelligence agency, the armed forces and other institutions including the government.

According to Dawn’s report, the ISI in a report submitted to the SC didn’t disclose the "source of livelihood, place of work, address, funding of their organisations, et cetera" of the TLP leadership.

The apex court’s judgment read:

“Subsequently, we had inquired whether they paid income tax or had bank accounts. ISI responded by stating that it did not have the mandate to gather such information and therefore was unable to provide answers to our queries.

“The learned AGP was thus asked to inform us about the law/rules/regulations governing ISI and its mandate. The learned AGP tendered a document (in a sealed envelope) which spelled out ISI’s mandate, but requested that the mandate of ISI should not be disclosed.

“He did not give any reason for such secrecy except that this was also the practice in other countries but did not cite the example of a single one.

“We, therefore, ascertained whether other countries maintained secrecy about the mandate of their intelligence agencies. The United Kingdom, the United States of America, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and Norway have laws governing their intelligence agencies, and all these laws also disclose their respective mandates.

“We are disappointed in the manner in which the government handled this aspect of the case; by ignoring an issue it does not go away.

“The perception that ISI may be involved in or interferes with matters with which an intelligence agency should not be concerned with, including politics, therefore was not put to rest.”

Taliban Takeover Afghanistan and After After the Taliban swiftly took over Afghanistan in August, General Hameed visited Kabul and held meetings with important figures. Details of his visit were not disclosed but a short video clip of him drinking tea at the Serena Kabul and telling the reporter that everything will be OK went viral.

Many analysts credit the Taliban takeover as a big win for Pakistan as it effectively quashed Indian influence prevalent in the previous regime of President Ashraf Ghani, as noted by Financial Times.

Social media is rife with speculation that General Hameed has been elevated to this post so that he may be considered to replace COAS General Bajwa who is due to retire next year. The military has not commented on these speculations.