The Pakistan Army has finally decided to explode its political nuclear weapon to eliminate and deter enemies of the service chief and restore central control of the organisation. In an unprecedented move, the former Inter-Services Intelligence chief, Lt. General Faiz Hameed was arrested under corruption charges.
Since the general will be tried in a military court and court-martialed if the allegations are proven, he was arrested while still in his army uniform. This also means that if the charges are substantiated, he will be stripped of his military decorations, perks, and privileges, and drummed out from the service.
The arrest was allegedly made following an investigation initiated by the army in April this year, in accordance with a Supreme Court judgment from November last year regarding the housing scheme Top City. The complainant accused the ISI chief and his brother of using the intelligence agency to pressure him into transferring a valuable piece of private land to Hameed’s elder brother, Najaf Hameed, who was a junior revenue official. The owner of Top City was allegedly tortured and harassed to achieve the desired results.
It is also worth noting that Faiz Hameed, as head of the ISI, was allegedly in the habit of extorting and manipulating members of the private sector for both personal and institutional gain. For instance, some people I spoke with in Karachi claimed that he arm-twisted the owners of International Power Providers (IPPs) into revising and renegotiating contracts to benefit the state. He then used similar tactics to help his brother acquire hundreds of acres of land in his home districts of Talagang and Chakwal, which were put in the names of family members. The army is believed to have gathered all the required evidence to pursue corruption cases.
However, the fact of the matter is that corruption is not a major issue for the army. The service can be forgiving if top officers engage in extortion or make personal gains. The corruption cases against Faiz Hameed and his brother Najaf Hameed, who is also under investigation by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), are nothing more than an excuse to punish him for something else. Senior journalist Mariana Baabar, on X, questioned the army’s public relations institution about the logic behind such swift action, noting that court orders are typically not enforced as quickly in other cases.
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An internal turmoil
The possible push behind the move seems to be that Hameed was trying to provoke disobedience and a revolt within the army against the army chief. As senior journalist Arifa Noor noted in her tweet, “People should be worrying less about the trial [Faiz Hameed’s] and more about the weakness and discipline within”. The corruption case seems to be set up to demonstrate to the public that Imran Khan and his favourite ISI chief were engaged in a behaviour that they said they were against, but the real problem that the army leadership has is with matters of internal indiscipline.
It is believed that in the coming days, more arrests including those of some serving officers will also be made. The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) formal statement indicates that the charges against the former ISI chief include violations of the Army Act post-retirement. Such allegations point toward him being engaged in beefing up support within the political system and the army for Imran Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf.
Some other sources claimed that Hameed was highly manipulative and had spread his tentacles deep into the political system. He had allegedly penetrated the Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League. Reportedly, he had a couple of sympathisers even in the Shehbaz Sharif cabinet. But the more serious problem was the ‘network’ he allegedly established with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) that was then used to gain support for the PTI in elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province. One is reminded of Faiz Hameed’s photo in Kabul Serena Hotel, sipping tea and saying, “Don’t worry, everything will be all right”.
If evidence is available to establish his links to TTP, it denotes a clear violation of not just military rules but shows he’s been engaging with terrorists that have been targeting the military and harming national security.
Nothing less than a bombshell of a trial, which will be in a military court, will curb the lack of discipline that has spread across the armed forces. The arrest is a signal to the military fraternity—especially retired and serving officers, who supported the PTI and stood against the current chief, General Asim Munir—to mend their ways.
The most important part of the decision to arrest Hameed, as sources in Islamabad indicated, is the consensus amongst the top echelons to punish one of their own. Clearly, the army is worried about the growing popularity of Imran Khan amongst civilians, but a greater worry is the divide within their own constituency. This decision addresses that.
It is not certain how much information will be leaked to the media once the trial begins, but it is certain that information will be leaked to make Khan and his ISI chief more controversial. What’s definite is that the top boss ran out of patience with his former colleague.
Munir took almost two years, giving a relatively free reign to Hameed until enough material could be collected to bring the case against him. According to Islamabad’s grapevine, evidence was collected regarding communication between many of the PTI leaders and Faiz Hameed. It’s worth noting that last year in August, the police ransacked a PTI leader Shirin Mazari’s home not just arresting her daughter but also taking away her security cameras, mobile phone and laptop.
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Curbing indiscipline
The important question that many ask is that if the army had information regarding Faiz Hameed, then why wait so long? The only explanation, as mentioned earlier, is to curb the growing indiscipline within the armed forces and continued support for Imran Khan. Many were surprised at the media space that Khan got, his access to information and his continued ability to excite people, while in jail. According to senior journalist Nusrat Javed, the jailed Khan had more access to information than other politicians. Clearly, Hameed’s conduct, and now this arrest, speaks volumes about problems within the institution.
Also, cracking down against one of their own kind is meant to send a signal to others including the media and judiciary. If Hameed was indeed running a racket, giving hope to others that Munir could be pushed back, then this is a moment of curtains going down on that act.
Of course, the story is not likely to end with the arrest. Depending on Hameed’s tolerance for the humiliation, some also talked about an eventuality where the former ISI chief might become a witness against Imran Khan. He could provide evidence that proves the PTI leader’s involvement in provoking a mutiny against the army chief. The army echelons, definitely the service chief, view the 9 May rebellion of sorts by the PTI as nothing less than an act of mutiny that ought to be punished.
As a political activist and a journalist friend I spoke with said, “The fear is that the army leadership is now headed towards hanging Khan politically if not physically”. The army has already managed to gag political resistance among the PTI’s civilian support base. Indubitably, the general public sympathises with Khan and this arrest will only boost his popularity. However, it is not likely that there could be a million march against the army. There is too much fear amongst the people. What the army wants to do now is to move decisively to put more pressure on Khan. They intend to punish him if he doesn’t budge. In case he surrenders, he will then be kept in jail and transformed to become another Nawaz Sharif—eager to comply with military orders and turn docile.
This is certainly a case of authoritarian rule spreading its tentacles. It may help bring things under temporary control. But this will not bring peace to Pakistan. The higher courts are also likely to get dragged into the matter as appeals may be presented challenging this decision. Will the courts that so far seem in a mood to establish their independence be able to push back is worth watching. The army has definitely made a major move on the political chessboard.
Ayesha Siddiqa is Senior Fellow at the Department of War Studies at King’s College, London. She is the author of Military Inc. She tweets @iamthedrifter. Views are personal.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)