The court martial procedure for former intelligence chief Faiz Hameed has been started in relation to the Top City housing scheme controversy, the army’s media wing announced on Monday. Hameed has been placed in military custody.
This is the first time in the history of the nation that a former spymaster has become the target of a court martial.
According to a press release from the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), “In compliance with the orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, a detailed court of inquiry was undertaken by Pakistan Army, to ascertain correctness of complaints in Top City case made against Lt Gen Faiz Hameed (Retd).”
In accordance with the Pakistan Army Act, “appropriate disciplinary action has been initiated against Lt Gen Faiz Hameed (Retd),” it continued.
Furthermore, numerous cases of post-retirement violations of the Pakistan Army Act have also been proven. According to the ISPR, Lt Gen Faiz Hameed (Retd) has been placed into military custody and the Field General Court Martial procedure has begun.
According to reports, an investigative committee was established by the military in April to look into claims of abuse of power made against the former chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
According to media sources, the committee would be led by a major general who is currently serving and was established by the military as a show of self-accountability.
They claimed that the committee was established in accordance with Supreme Court and Ministry of Defense guidelines.
The top court stated in a written ruling dated November 14 that charges of a “very serious nature” against retired Lt-Gen Faiz Hameed, the former spymaster, “cannot be left unattended” as, if verified, they would damage the standing of the nation’s institutions.
The written order had stated that the claims “cannot be left unattended, as they are of an extremely serious nature and, if true, would undoubtedly undermine the reputation of the federal government, the armed forces, ISI, and Pakistan Rangers.”
The owners of Top City, a private housing project, had made serious accusations against the former head of the ISI, saying he had planned an attack on the owner’s house and offices, Moeez Khan.
The housing society’s owner was urged by the Supreme Court in November 2023 to take his complaints against the former spymaster and his assistants to the appropriate authorities, including the defense ministry.
According to the reports, the recently established inquiry committee will compile its report in light of its conclusions and submit it to the appropriate authorities.
A probe into allegations of corruption and unjustifiable asset accumulation against the former head of the ISI and his brother was announced in March 2023 by then-interior minister Rana Sanaullah.
The brother of the former spymaster, retired naib tehsildar Najaf Hameed, was placed on a 14-day judicial remand at Adiala jail by a Rawalpindi court in March 2024. Pre-arrest bail was requested by Najaf and the other co-accused parties in the FIR filed with the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) in Rawalpindi. Former Mineral Resources Minister Hafiz Ammar Yasir allegedly bought properties worth billions of rupees under the names of benamidars, according to the FIR.
Government response
Sanaullah explained to Geo News that this was a “very unusual event and I don’t think there is any example of this present before at this level” in response to the events of today.
According to Sanaullah, the administration was aware that an investigation was being conducted against the former intelligence head and that his name had surfaced in connection with other matters, which may have had an effect on the current event.
The move will enhance the military’s reputation and credibility for having an accountability system “no matter the position,” he said, adding that “people had very little hope or the idea that action would be taken at this level.”
In a recent interview with the Geo News program “Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath,” Defence Minister Khawaja Asif stated: “Gen Faiz has definitely had a hand in the events on the political scene since his retirement.” Knowing him a little bit, he was forced to muddy the waters and could not refrain.
He went on, saying, “It gives them ulcers to see someone who possessed great and unrestricted power step back.”
Asif restated that since his retirement, Gen. Hameed has had a “directly more” significant part in events. In addition, he asserted that the former spymaster “may have had a role in what happened on May 9,” alluding to the countrywide rioting that resulted from the detention of PTI founder Imran Khan the previous year.
“Though I cannot say for sure, events do seem to point in his direction.”
Retirement and contentious history
Unnamed reports claim that in November 2022, Gen. Hameed submitted his resignation to the high command in order to pursue an early retirement. In June 2019, he was named the head of ISI.
In the final quarter of 2021, he was the center of attention during an apparent standoff between the PTI administration and the military regarding the appointment of Lt Gen Nadeem Anjum as the new head of the ISI.
On October 6, 2021, the army declared that Gen. Hameed had been appointed as the corps commander of Peshawar, and Lt Gen. Anjum had been appointed in his stead. However, it took the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) three weeks to formally announce Lt Gen Anjum’s appointment, which sparked wild rumors about strained ties between the military and the civilian population.
On October 26, 2021, the PMO finally announced that Lt Gen Nadeem Anjum will be taking over as the next head of ISI. Later, Imran had declared that he “never meddled” in the affairs of the Pakistan Army and that he had never planned to “bring his own army chief.”
General Hameed was one of the six most senior generals whose names were submitted to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for approval in November 2022 by General Headquarters as possible candidates for the two highest military appointments.
Before taking over as corps commander of Bahawalpur, Gen. Hameed held the same role at Peshawar.
Over the past ten years, the former spymaster has been at the center of numerous political disputes in the nation.
The public first became aware of Gen. Hameed after he facilitated an arrangement that allowed the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan to halt the Faizabad dharna in November 2017.
The Supreme Court declared in a suo motu notice of the occurrence in February 2019 that the Inter-Services Public Relations, Military Intelligence, Intelligence Bureau, and ISI “must not exceed their respective mandates.”
He has been heavily criticized by Maryam Nawaz, the daughter of PML-N supreme leader Nawaz Sharif, and others for supporting the previous PTI-run setup and for playing a part in their convictions.
In July 2018, Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, a former judge on the Islamabad High Court (IHC), made grave accusations against members of a security agency, alleging that they were tampering with legal procedures. In order to guarantee that Nawaz and Maryam stayed in jail for the elections, he further stated that the agencies spoke with the chief justice of the IHC. Then the judge lost his job.
But in December 2023, he had listed several former judges and retired army generals as parties to the lawsuit opposing his dismissal.
On behalf of the former judge, senior attorney Hamid Khan filed an amended application with the Supreme Court, naming former army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa, Gen. Hameed, three retired brigadiers (Irfan Ramay, Faisal Marwat, and Tahir Wafai), Anwar Khan Kasi, a former chief justice of the IHC, and Arbab Muhammad Arif, a former registrar of the Supreme Court, as respondents in his petition.
In his response to the petition, General Hameed refuted the accusations that he was involved in the formation of the IHC benches to extend the detention of Nawaz and Maryam, asserting that the judge had arbitrarily brought him into the issue.
Moreover, in February 2023, the then-minister of human rights, Riaz Pirzada, asserted that Gen. Hameed wished to revive the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which was banned from the nation.
Former federal minister Faisal Vawda charged in May 2023 that Gen. Hameed was the Al-Qadir Trust case’s “architect, mastermind, and biggest beneficiary.”
The case claims that in exchange for legalizing Rs 50 billion, which was later located and repatriated to the nation by the UK while the PTI government was in power, former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife received land valued at hundreds of kanals and billions of rupees from Bahria Town Ltd.
Demand Letter
According to the lawsuit, on May 12, 2017, Pakistan Rangers and ISI agents searched Moeez’s home and Top City office, seizing goods including cash and jewelry made of gold and diamonds in relation to a fictitious terrorism case.
The petition further claimed that Sardar Najaf, the brother of Gen. Hameed, attempted to intervene and settle the dispute. According to the petition, following his acquittal, Gen. Hameed made contact with Moeez via the latter’s army brigadier cousin in order to set up a meeting.
According to the petition, at the meeting, Gen. Hameed promised to return part of the things seized during the search, with the exception of 400 tola of gold and cash.
The petition stated that the petitioner was “forced” to “pay 4 crores in cash” and “sponsor a private AAP TV network for a few months” by retired brigade Ghaffar and retired brigadier Naeem Fakhar of the ISI.
The suit further claims that Mohammad Munir, Zahid Mehmood Malik, Wasim Tabish, Irtaza Haroon, and Sardar Najaf were “involved in the illegal takeover of the housing society.”
