A Pakistan military court on Thursday delivered a historic verdict, sentencing Lieutenant General (retired) Faiz Hameed, the former Director General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), to 14 years of rigorous imprisonment with hard labour. The punishment, handed down by a Field General Court Martial (FGCM) convened under the Pakistan Army Act, represents one of the most severe penalties ever imposed on a former chief of the country’s premier intelligence agency and signals an extraordinary purge within the military-intelligence establishment.
The court found Hameed guilty on all four charges framed against him: engaging in political activities expressly forbidden for serving officers, multiple violations of the Official Secrets Act that were deemed detrimental to the safety and interests of the state, gross misuse of official authority and government resources for personal gain, and causing wrongful financial loss to private citizens through coercion and abuse of power. Military prosecutors presented evidence spanning several months, including documents, witness testimonies from serving and retired officers, and records of questionable transactions linked to Hameed’s tenure.
The case originated from a Supreme Court-ordered investigation into the controversial Top City housing society scandal near Islamabad, where developers accused senior military officers of extortion and land-grabbing. Hameed was taken into military custody in August 2024 after a top-level inquiry committee confirmed prima facie evidence of his direct involvement in intimidating the housing project’s owner and orchestrating raids by intelligence operatives to settle personal scores. The inquiry was expanded to examine broader allegations of political engineering during the final years of Imran Khan’s government.
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Hameed’s conviction carries far-reaching ramifications. Appointed ISI chief in 2019 after the abrupt removal of the current army chief General Asim Munir from the same post, he was once considered the most powerful spymaster in Pakistan and a central figure in domestic political management. His closeness to jailed former prime minister Imran Khan had long been an open secret, and the verdict is being interpreted by many analysts as the military high command’s decisive move to sever lingering institutional ties with Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) ahead of possible political reconciliation attempts.
With his rank, honours, and pension forfeited, Faiz Hameed’s fall from grace marks a rare instance of accountability at the highest echelons of Pakistan’s security apparatus. The verdict not only ends the career of a once untouchable general but also sends a chilling message through the ranks: even the former head of the feared ISI is no longer beyond the reach of military justice when the institution perceives a direct threat to its cohesion and authority.
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