The Pakistani military announced on Monday that it had arrested the former head of its top intelligence agency, Lt. Gen. Faiz Hameed, and initiated court-martial proceedings against the retired general on charges of corruption and political meddling, officials said.
His arrest is the first time in Pakistan’s history that a current or former chief of the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence, or I.S.I., has faced court-martial proceedings. It is widely seen as part of the latest crackdown on allies of the imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who handpicked General Hameed to serve as spy chief during his tenure.
A news release from the Inter-Services Public Relations, or I.S.P.R., the military’s media wing, said Monday that disciplinary action has been taken against General Hameed under the Pakistan Army Act and relates to a 2017 scandal involving a private housing development in Islamabad. Officials have accused General Hameed and his brother of attempting to acquire ownership of the housing development by arresting and blackmailing its owner, according to court proceedings.
Officials also accused General Hameed of violating the Pakistani Army Act after retiring in 2022, according to the news release, though it did not specify the exact charges. The act prohibits officials from engaging in political activities for two years after retirement.
The Inter-Services Intelligence is one of Pakistan’s most potent and influential institutions, and General Hameed was once a symbol of unbending, daunting power in Pakistan, whose very public ambitions helped spawn the political crisis that has gripped Pakistan over the past two years.
For years at the spy agency, General Hameed maneuvered alongside Mr. Khan to become army chief — perhaps the most powerful position in Pakistan, where the military acts as the invisible hand guiding the country’s politics. Mr. Khan’s efforts to promote him to that role after he became prime minister in 2018 developed into a major point of friction between him and the military, eventually leading to Mr. Khan’s ouster in 2022.