ISI chief appointment issue to be resolved in a week

ISLAMABAD: The appointment of the next director general of the Inter-services Intelligence (ISI) may be notified any time next week.

An official said soon ater the notification of the new spy chief, the incumbent ISI chief Lt Gen Faiz Hamid, will join the Peshawar Corps as already announced by the Inter-services Public Relations (ISPR) He said that the issue of the appointment has now been resolved.

The interviews for the post may not be conducted by Prime Minister Imran Khan now. The official was not sure about the precise day when the notification would be issued.

But he said that the much-discussed summary for the appointment has not been forwarded to the Prime Minister’s Office.

It has been a tense few days for many. Following the Oct.6 announcement by the ISPR of the appointment of several three-star generals, a controversy erupted ater the prime minister raised questions over the procedure adopted instead of issuing orders for the issuance of a notification for the appointment of the new ISI chief.

In the last cabinet meeting, the prime minister discussed the issue with his colleagues and, according to his party’s chief whip in the National Assembly Amir Dogar, Imran Khan wanted to retain the incumbent ISI head for another two to four months.

Dogar had said that Khan wanted Hameed to continue amid the evolving situation in Afghanistan.

He said the premier had mentioned that respect for the army and for the prime minister go hand in hand, adding the government wanted to be on the same page with all the institutions.

The prime minister, according to Dogar, had noted that Lt-gen Nadeem Anjum was also a good professional soldier.

Dogar said now a panel of three to five names would be put forward before the prime minister and he would pick the new DG ISI from them.

He insisted that it was a mater of the personal preference of the prime minister, but “there may have been a procedural deficiency.”

He acknowledged that the prime minister had insisted during the cabinet meeting that he was not a mere rubber stamp.

Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said the issue of appointment of new ISI director general would be resolved in a couple of days.

However, he was reluctant to further comment on the mater, saying: “There was no significant development on the issue on Friday.”