Former ISI chief summoned by high-level body probing Faizabad sit-in

In a rare move, a high-level probe body has summoned Pakistan’s former spy chief Lt-Gen Faiz Hameed next week to record his statement in an infamous sit-in by a radical Islamic group in November 2017 that paralysed the capital city for about three weeks.

The sit-in was led by Tehreek-i-Labiak Pakistan (TLP) group activists under cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvi. The protestors were upset due to some changes in the oath of elected representatives which they alleged violated the Islamic concept of finality of the Prophet. According to The Express Tribune newspaper, the commission summoned Hameed, the former director general of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), for a second time to record his statement next week. Hameed served as DG-ISI from June 2019 to October 2021.

The paper quoted sources saying that two notices were sent to the former ISI chief through the defence ministry. In the first notice, he was summoned in the second week of December, but the notice could not be served in time, resulting in the retired general not appearing before the commission.

Now, the second notice has been sent asking him to appear before the commission next week and record his statement regarding the sit-in and assist the commission in gathering evidence in this matter, reported the paper.

It was not clear if the former spy chief would appear before the commission and record his statement.

The ISI is considered highly powerful and influential in the country and its retired officials are seldom subjected to probe or any kind of scrutiny. The sit-in at the Faizabad interchange linking the capital Islamabad to Rawalpindi had cut off the two cities for about three weeks, causing massive hardships for the people.

The Supreme Court in a 2019 judgment had pulled up the security institutions for failure to stop the protestors and also ordered a probe to fix the responsibility for the failure. The judgment authored by the current Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa was not implemented until he became the head of the Supreme Court in September and resumed hearing the old review petition against his judgment filed by the then government.

Isa expressed anger at the delay in implementing his judgment, forcing the government to set up the ‘Faizabad Sit-In Commission’ to probe and fix responsibility for the failure to let the protestors gather at a key juncture and paralyse the capital city.