Faiz Hameed

Faiz Hameed HI(M) (Punjabi & ) is a retired three-star general of the Pakistan Army and former spymaster who served as the 24th Director General of the ISI. He was commissioned in the Baloch Regiment having served as GOC 16th Infantry Division Pano Akil. He last served as Commander of the XXXI Corps before taking pre-mature retirement on 10 December 2022.

Early life and family
Faiz was born in village of Latifal, Chakwal and joined the Pakistan Military Academy in 1987. He graduated from Command & Staff College, Quetta and was commissioned in the Baloch Regiment of the Pakistan Army. He has three brothers, Sardar Sikandar Hayat, Sardar Najaf, and Sardar Khizar. His brother Sikandar Hayat died in 2016 in an accident while his brother Sardar Najaf Hameed is a land revenue officer in his hometown. Faiz Hameed's family belongs to Chakwal which is known for producing military commanders.

Military career
Faiz was commissioned in the Pakistan Army's Baloch Regiment. He served as Adjutant General at the GHQ in Rawalpindi, Pakistan from April 2019 to June 2019. He previsouly served as head of the ISI from January 2017 to April 2019. He has remained GOC (General Officer Commanding) of 16 infantry divisions at Pano Akil Cantonment from June 2015 to January 2017 and DG Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) from June 2019 to 6 October 2021. He also served as Corp Commander In Peshawar and Bahawalpur until his retirement.

Director-General of the ISI (2019–2021)
Lt Gen Faiz Hameed previously served as head of the ISI (Counter Intelligence Wing). Later he served as Director-General of Inter-Services Intelligence (DG-ISI) from June 2019 to 6 October 2021. He was the 24th Director-General of ISI. Lt Gen Faiz Hameed is best known for the role of chief spymaster. In September 2021, he visited Kabul just a month after the Afghan Taliban took control of the country and discussed the changes after the US withdrawal.

Activities in Kabul following the Taliban victory
During his tenure as Director-General of the ISI, he visited Kabul only a couple of weeks after the Afghan capital fell to the Taliban.

When a reporter asked Hameed about what would happen now that the Taliban controlled Afghanistan, Hameed smiled, and famously replied: "Don't worry, everything will be okay."

Allegations of Judicial Manipulation
In 2018, the Islamabad High Court's (IHC) dismissed judge, Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, accused Faiz Hameed of manipulating judicial proceedings in the Panama Papers case involving former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Siddiqui claimed that Faiz, who served as the Director General of the ISI at the time, sought a bench of his preference to hear appeals related to Nawaz Sharif and his family.

On January 22, 2024, a five-member larger bench of the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice (CJ) Qazi Faez Isa, addressed the sacked judge's petition. Notably, the petition was not entertained during the tenures of three former chief justices.

Prior to the hearing, Faiz Hameed submitted his responses through Khawaja Haris. In defense against the accusations, the former ISI chief refuted the claims made by the former IHC judge, labeling them as "absolutely false, concocted, and based on an afterthought." Faiz clarified that the constitution of benches for hearing appeals fell under the purview of the IHC chief justice, not the petitioner, who was then the senior puisne judge.