The untold story of Faiz

One fine Islamabad afternoon in the spring of 2021, I received a call from a source. He said he needed to see me urgently. I had prior commitments but the insistence in his voice made me reconsider. He pressed on, saying he needed just ten minutes. When I asked about the venue, he suggested something unusual: we could meet in the car. I agreed. I arrived at the agreed time. Without wasting a moment, the source said he wanted to share "earth-shaking" news.

As a reporter, that phrase instantly sparks curiosity. Journalists live for scoops. What he revealed next genuinely shook me. According to him, serious tensions were brewing between then Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and Prime Minister Imran Khan. At the time, this sounded almost unbelievable. Publicly, everything appeared honky-dory. Civil and military officials repeatedly boasted of being "on the same page." That was precisely why this information seemed too good to be true. But the source went further and dropped a bombshell. He said the root cause of the tension between General Bajwa and Imran Khan was the then Director General Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Lt General Faiz Hameed. General Bajwa wanted Faiz transferred out of the ISI, but the prime minister was sitting on the notification. According to the source, Faiz was using Imran Khan to block the move while Imran was convinced that Faiz's removal from the ISI would be detrimental to his government.

For a journalist, it was an incredibly tempting story. Scoops like these can define careers. Yet the stakes were enormous. Without solid documentary proof and corroboration from multiple sources, no responsible editor would dare publish such a claim. Given the sensitivities involved, I decided to let it pass.

A few months later, the story proved correct. What unfolded was not merely a fallout between General Bajwa and Imran Khan, but also the unravelling of the relationship between the Army Chief and his powerful spymaster, Faiz Hameed. When General Bajwa was appointed Army Chief in November 2016 by then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, I had a strong sense that Faiz, then a major general, would one day head the ISI. We came from the same district, and I knew certain things that others perhaps did not. In the Pakistan Army, senior officers often take trusted subordinates along as they rise through the ranks. Faiz was one such officer.

For much of his career, he served under General Bajwa, particularly during Bajwa's tenure as commander of the Rawalpindi Corps. It was therefore no surprise when, within months of becoming Army Chief, General Bajwa picked Faiz to head one of the most important wings of the ISI. That appointment brought Faiz into the limelight. His name first entered the public domain when he signed the Faizabad Dharna agreement that ended the 21-day sit-in by Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan. Traditionally, the DG (C) within the ISI is a position that attracts no public attention. Before Faiz, few people even knew who held that office. His tenure changed that norm entirely.

Faiz was seen meeting politicians, journalists and businessmen. Many prominent political figures were frequently spotted visiting his village, an unprecedented phenomenon for someone holding such a sensitive post within the intelligence apparatus. When he later became DG ISI, his public visibility increased even further. He exuded confidence and within certain circles, his family members were already being congratulated as if his elevation to Army Chief was a foregone conclusion. Last week, Faiz Hameed became the first former ISI chief to be convicted on multiple charges and sentenced to 14 years in prison.

The charge sheet against him was extensive. But his cardinal sin, in institutional terms, was that when the Army as an institution decided to withdraw support from Imran Khan's government, Faiz chose a different path. The Pakistan Army fiercely guards its institutional interests and its officers. But when one of its own is seen as breaking that code, there is little room for mercy.