Who is Lt Gen Faiz Hameed, Pakistan's new Intelligence chief?

Image: ISI Public Relations

Late on the night of June 16, Lt General Faiz Hameed was appointed as the new Director-General of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, replacing Lt Gen Asim Munir from the post. The move came in through the military's press statement, according to news agency Reuters, and it did not explain the sudden change in posts.

Munir, who was reportedly handpicked by the chief of Pakistan Army, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, last year, has had the shortest stint as the head of Pakistan's intelligence agency, according to reports. Munir served as the chief of ISI for eight months.

General Hameed had reportedly served in the ISI before as the head of internal security, and is perceived to be a close confidant of Bajwa.

According to the newspaper Dawn, Pakistan military spokesperson, Major General Asif Ghafoor, had praised General Hameed for his fight against terrorism.

"All these terrorist incidents that I tell you have been averted are because of Gen Faiz's department," Ghafoor had said during a press conference last July.

Reports suggest that Hameed's rise to prominence began during protests by a religious group in Islamabad in 2017. The group, called Tehreek-e-Labbaik, was protesting against a change in the oath of office in the Elections Act. Hameed had reportedly helped broker a deal that ended the protests.

According to a report by the Indian Express, in 2018, former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif had accused Hameed of engineering defections from his party to join the current PM Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

Reports quoting experts have stated that the move is "hawkish" and "intriguing", Hameed being a "hardline" officer.

"He is very hardline," Ayesha Siddiqa, an analyst who has also written a book about the military's business empire told Reuters. "It's a very hawkish decision. It means the military is not backing down, and it's going to use more force," Siddiqa, who has been the military's longstanding critic, said.

"Even though Hameed is from the Baloch regiment, the same as army chief General Bajwa, there is clearly more than meets the eye," former civil servant Tilak Devasher told the Economic Times.

"Possibly, the ham-handed manner in which the Pashtun protests have been dealt with could be a reason for his shifting," Devasher added.

For Hameed, reports indicate that the challenge would be to handle both the internal and the external security issues for Pakistan. With the amount of power that the ISI allegedly wields within Pakistan, Hameed assumes a position that remains within shadows but can practically run the country, reports have suggested.

Hameed would also need to handle the rising Pashtun movement, which has been raging a storm in north-western Pakistan, close to the Afghanistan border.