Distancing himself from the former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lieutenant General (retd) Faiz Hamid, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) founder Imran Khan has said the arrest of the retired general is an internal matter of the Pakistan Army.
The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) on August 12 announced the arrest of the former ISI chief, saying that he was “taken into custody” over allegations of land grabbing and snatching valuables from the owner of a private housing society.
“Complying with the orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, a detailed court of inquiry was undertaken by the Pakistan Army to ascertain the correctness of complaints in the Top City Case made against Lt Gen (retd) Faiz Hamid,” the army’s media wing said earlier this week.
“I have no connection with General (retd) Faiz,” the incarcerated PTI leader said while talking to journalists at Adiala Jail.”If the military wants the accountability of General Faiz [then] it should proceed and do it,” Khan said, asserting that it is the army’s internal matter.
Welcoming the development, the former premier said it was good that army has launched the process of internal accountability, he noted. However, he urged the military to ensure that the process of accountability should be across the board.
Responding to a question relating to his past engagement with the former spymaster, the 72-year-old cricketer-turned-politician said that while he was the premier he did not want to remove General Faiz from his office amid regime change in Afghanistan.
At the time, General Faiz was engaged with the Afghanistan government and Taliban, the PTI founder said, adding that the former army officer arranged his meeting with then US envoy on Afghanistan’s peace process Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban representatives.
The former ISI chief continued negotiations with the Taliban for three years as he enjoyed good relations with them, he noted, adding that the former serviceman was an asset for the country however, he was wasted.
The embattled PTI founder said that he exchanged heated words with the former army chief, General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa over the issue of removing the former ISI boss from his post, adding Bajwa removed Faiz for the sake of his extension. “I repeatedly asked Bajwa not to remove Faiz but to no avail,” he added.
