Scrutiny of officers appointed by former director general of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) General (r) Faiz Hameed is being pursued in the country, The News reported on Thursday.
According to media reports, former head of ISI Islamabad office Colonel (r) Liaquat Ali Waseem and his family were at the Islamabad airport to go to the United Kingdom. But when the family reached the departure lounge, Liaquat was barred from boarding the flight, though other family members were allowed to go.
Media reports suggested that Colonel (r) Liaquat was the special man of Lieutenant General (r) Faiz Hameed. He had absolute authority to settle matters. From Parliament to the Panama Papers investigation and other accountability cases against the leadership of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Colonel (r) Liaquat played a pivotal role.
Maryam Nawaz once spoke about him, without mentioning his name, and said that everyone in Islamabad knows that a retired colonel runs the parliament.
When the leadership in ISI changed, Colonel (r) Liaquat was asked to resign.
It is still unclear why Colonel (r) Liaquat was not allowed to go abroad, but the newspaper said that it has confirmed the whole story through three different sources. The incident took place on January 15.
An intelligence officer had accompanied the Colonel (r) Liaquat and his family to facilitate immigration and later the same officer brought Colonel (r) Liaquat back.
Colonel (r) Liaquat had previously served as an ambassador at the Pakistani High Commission UK.
General (r) Faiz Faiz Hameed-related Colonel (r) Liaquat is not the only officer under scrutiny.
There are several officers who have been questioned in some cases and have been asked to resign.
As soon as General (r) Faiz left the ISI charge, Rahmatullah Khan, a civilian officer of the agency, was posted to Saudi Arabia. Just two months ago, he was recalled from Riyadh for questioning and has since been posted in a remote area of Pakistan.
Rumors are hot on social media that when Imran Khan was the prime minister, Rehmatullah disguised himself as the spiritual guide of Imran Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi. However, when the allegation was investigated, it turned out to be false. Instead, it emerged that Rahmat was asked to keep an eye on spiritual figures who were connected to Bushra Bibi.
Lieutenant Colonel (r) Asif Mehmood is another officer who was posted in the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). He has also been involved in accountability proceedings. Prior to PCB, he was Intelligence and Vigilance Officer at National Accountability Bureau (NAB). Lieutenant Colonel (r) Asif was the director of security and anti-corruption in PCB till last month. On January 23, he was asked to resign but he refused. Consequently, he was fired.
Two Brigadiers have also been shown the way out. One of them was retired and posted as DG in the agency. He is said to be the architect of manipulation in Senate elections. Another officer was posted outside the agency but was involved in other projects approved by the former ISI chief.
A defense analyst was contacted to understand this whole situation and he said that it is normal. He said whenever new leadership comes in, it builds its team with whom it feels comfortable, and so there is nothing unusual about the whole thing.
Without removing the whole sordid political engineering network in ISI and judiciary set up by Faiz/Bajwa it would not be possible to follow apolitical paradigm shift in military command.
These characters ought to be held accountable and their networks disbanded. There is still support from within military that’s refusing to budge and the new command structure has been unable to level the playing field.