WHEN former army chief Gen Qamar Bajwa decided to launch his ‘get Nawaz’ operation because he was convinced that the then prime minister was dead against granting extensions, he plucked from relative obscurity the general officer commanding (GOC) of the 16th Division based in Pano Aqil in northern Sindh, and gave him one of the most politically significant military postings in the country at the ISI HQ in Islamabad. A second term for Bajwa fitted in with Faiz Hameed’s plans too.
The newly appointed DGC, Maj-Gen Faiz Hameed, hit the ground running and within no time established his stranglehold over the media, cajoling and threatening everyone from YouTubers to senior editors, empowered street agitators such as the TLP, and spread his tentacles to grip key members of the country’s superior judiciary. He seemed to have mesmerised even hitherto respected judges.
With unprecedented viciousness, he quickly removed all the obstacles in the path of the brief he’d been given and anyone who knew what was happening would say Nawaz Sharif’s goose was cooked and he was not just looking at being ousted from office but was going to end up in prison. The general also worked on making sure that the alternative who’d not had much electoral success till that stage became a serious contender.
Perhaps, today the focus of mostly unbiased observers rightly remains on the 2024 elections but it is equally important to see how the 2018 elections were conducted. In the process, Faiz Hameed cultivated close ties with the man who was to become the prime minister or let’s say the man Faiz Hameed dragged over the finish line in the 2018 elections.
In April 2019, after the PTI-led coalition had formed the government the year before, in no small measure thanks to the efforts of the very effective and ambitious two-star, Faiz Hameed was promoted to three stars and posted as adjutant general, Pakistan Army. Normally, three-star appointments are for a four-year tenure that is split between command and staff roles half and half.
One can safely say the man who planned to be king made a hash of it by not knowing when to stop.
Within two months of this elevation, the new prime minister, Imran Khan, insisted that the man be appointed his DG ISI, the top spymaster of the country, and the two men moved ever closer. Nobody knows whether this move was the prime minister’s own decision or whether it was at the instigation of the general himself.
The same year Bajwa was granted his much-coveted extension, despite a last-ditch effort by (possibly a) guilt-ridden Supreme Court to stall it. By this time, the opposition too had been beaten into total submission and voted alongside the treasury benches for it.
This suited Faiz Hameed as well, as Bajwa’s additional three years would put him among the cohort of the senior-most lieutenant-generals in running for the next chief.
And with a prime minister in office close to him, he’d be the frontrunner. He seemed to have played his cards well.
It seems Gen Bajwa had other ideas. He knew that with the incumbent prime minister, he would be hard-pressed to get yet another extension because of the Faiz factor. So, after a lot of back and forth, Bajwa apparently either convinced the prime minister that without ‘command’ experience Faiz Hameed would not be in the running for chief or just forced the decision on him. In October 2021, he was posted as corps commander to Peshawar, and Lt-Gen Nadeem Anjum replaced him as DG ISI.
With an eye to the end of Bajwa’s second three-year tenure in November 2022, Imran Khan’s carefully constructed, contrived actually, majority was eroded till he eventually was voted out in April 2022 and a new prime minister, a man who had long sought the top office and advocated a live-and let-live policy with the military within his party, the PML-N, took office.
Analysts who claim to have a window to Faiz Hameed’s thinking are convinced that even his proximity to the PTI leader and apparent loyalty to the latter was devious to say the least as he aimed to use that as a stepping stone to the most powerful office in the country. Once (and if) in, he’d be king! In fact, the way he was acting was if he’d already been crowned.
But then Imran Khan, the prime minister at the time, who’d have named Faiz as the chief had reportedly rubbed another senior officer the wrong way when he insisted Bajwa remove the latter as ISI chief.
As November of 2022 approached, Bajwa reportedly started to put pressure on the current prime minister for yet another extension. There were even suggestions of drastic action. But these were never confirmed. However, the prime minister’s elder brother reportedly advised him to appoint the current chief. The rest is history.
Having lost in the race he’d arranged so diligently to be among the frontrunners, any other officer would have given up. Not Faiz Hameed. And that was his biggest mistake. The establishment may take a dim view of civilian politicians but there is nothing more intolerable than internal disloyalty.
As in militaries the world over, issues around the chief’s decisions may be debated within the appropriate internal forum by officers but no one is allowed to subvert them. One can safely say the man who planned to be king made a hash of it by not knowing when to stop. There are now reports — again unsubstantiated — of him being used as a state witness against the former prime minister.
One hopes for the country’s sake this talk is just talk and no more. Pakistan needs political stability for economic progress. The hybrid set-up should focus on that as a one-point agenda and nothing else.
The writer is a former editor of Dawn.
Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2025
