Lieutenant General (retd) Faiz Hameed was the former chief of Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency. On Monday, the military’s media wing stated that he had been taken into custody in connection with the Top City housing scheme scandal.

He was appointed the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) director general on June 16, 2019 when former prime minister Imran Khan’s government was in power.

He had replaced the incumbent Chief of Army Staff General Syed Asim Munir as the ISI chief. Gen Munir was given charge of Commander Gujranwala Corps.

Moreover, the incumbent Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee chairman, General Sahir Shamshad Mirza, was appointed the adjutant general at the General Headquarters (GHQ).

He was replaced by Lt Gen Nadeem Ahmed Anjum as the ISI DG on October 06, 2021 after serving in the post for over two years.

Gen Hameed belonged to the Baloch Regiment. He was in-charge of the internal security wing at the ISI. He had commanded a division in Pano Aqil.

In 2017, he was the head of the counter intelligence wing in the ISI. He was also among those who brokered the Faizabad agreement in 2017 between protesters from various religious groups and the then government, signing the agreement in the capacity of “guarantor”.

After seven months of Khan’s ouster from PM’s Office in 2022, Lt Gen (retd) Faiz Hameed opted to seek early retirement and sent his resignation to the high command. There was no official confirmation from Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) regarding the development, but the military’s media affairs wing and Gen Faiz himself did not issue a denial either.

He was among the six most senior generals considered for the posts of Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee and the chief of army staff, according to media reports.

When he was serving as the ISI chief, the PML-N had repeatedly accused him of influencing the courts to ensure convictions against its leadership.

He was at the center of a controversy when then-premier Imran Khan wanted him to continue as DG ISI but the-then Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa had other plans.

In December 2022, Hameed told Ansar Abbasi of The News that he would never join politics amid media reports.

He had described all speculation about his joining politics or leading the PTI as “totally false”.

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Moreover, Lt Gen Hameed visited Kabul and held meetings with important figures after the Taliban swiftly took over Afghanistan in August. 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 the Financial Times.