ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan has revealed that he did not want former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director General Lt Gen Faiz Hamid to be changed and wanted him to stay in office until the winter of 2021, because he apprehended a worsening of the situation in Afghanistan as well as opposition intrigue to topple his government.

Speaking during a podcast released late on Thursday night, Mr Khan also said that the two disgruntled Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leaders and his close aides — Aleem Khan and Jahangir Tareen — left him as he did not support their ‘illegal designs’.

The PTI chairman said he could not make the drastic changes he wanted during his rule because his party lacked a comprehensive majority in parliament, adding that he will never want to sit in office again unless he clinched a two-third majority.

He also said the present judicial system of the country was incapable of laying its hands on the powerful and corrupt.

Calls ISI head ‘govt’s eyes and ears’; claims judiciary incapable of laying hands on the corrupt, powerful

“It is there was some bad blood (between his government and the army) on the issue of Gen Faiz — that I wanted to make him new army chief. However, I have not interfered in the army,” the former prime minister told Junaid Akram, Muzamil Hasan and Talha Ahad of The Centrum Media.

It is worth noting that the Imran Khan government’s standoff with the army started after the military announced the posting of Gen Nadeem Anjum as director general ISI on Oct 6, in place of Gen Faiz Hamid, who was posted out as the commander of Peshawar based Corps XI.

At the time, the prime minister did not immediately notify his appointment. Multiple reasons were then cited for the prime minister not approving the appointment right away, including his desire to retain the incumbent for some time in view of the situation in Afghanistan and his insistence on being allowed to exercise the authority to appoint the spy chief.

The appointment crisis was eventually resolved 3 weeks later when Mr Khan agreed to Gen Anjum’s appointment.

During the podcast, the PTI chief referred to this when he said: “I come to know last year that there was a possibility of civil war in Afghanistan due to the exit of US forces and I feared its fallout will impact Pakistan as well. This was why I wanted the ISI chief, who had already served for five years, to stay in office until winter. Secondly, I knew the opposition had been planning to topple my government since July last year, therefore I did not want my intelligence chief to be changed.”

“You do not change your intelligence chief in difficult times, as he is the eyes and ears of the government. But here, an impression was given that I wanted to make General Faiz the army chief,” he added.

Speaking about the impression that he wanted to bring in Faiz Hamid as army chief, Mr Khan said he couldn’t even think of going against merit on the appointment of the chief of army staff. He claimed that rumours were spread that Imran Khan wanted to bring in his own army chief, adding that the thought had never crossed his mind.

Mr Khan, whose government was sent home last month after a vote of no confidence against him in the National Assembly, said he did not believe in interfering with the workings of state institutions and that was why he wanted to see the army, judiciary and police strengthened.

Published in Dawn, May 7th, 2022