Gen Faiz Hameed to head ISI

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The Pakistan Army on Sunday appointed Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed as the new head of premier spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) amid a number of high-level appointments and transfers.

The general will be replacing Lieutenant General Asim Muneer, who has been given charge of Commander Gujranwala Corps, said an Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) statement by local media.

Gen Muneer was appointed as the ISI chief in Oct last year.

Media reports say that Lieutenant General Sahir Shamshad Mirza has been appointed as Adjutant General at the General Headquarters (GHQ) whereas Lieutenant General Aamir Abbasi has been named as Quarter Master at GHQ. Lieutenant General Moazzam Abbas has been named Engineer-In-Chief at GHQ.

Gen Hameed is from the Baloch Regiment.

On April 12, the army promoted four of its major generals, including Faiz Hameed, Sahir Shamshad Mirza, Nauman Mahmood, and Azhar Abbas, to the rank of lieutenant general, the ISPR said.

General Hameed was appointed as Adjutant General at the General Headquarters (GHQ) later that month. He was previously serving as the head of the counter-intelligence wing in the ISI.

His name also came to the fore during a sit-in by Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan in 2017, wherein the general brokered an agreement between the protesting clerics and the Pakistan Muslim-League-Nawaz (PML-N) government. He signed the agreement in the capacity of ‘guarantor’.

The general was also accused by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif of coercing politicians to switch loyalties and join the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the run up to the general elections in 2018.