The Pakistan Army last week announced that it had taken the former director general of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), retired Lt Gen Faiz Hameed, into custody, making him the first ex-spymaster to face a court martial.

According to the military’s media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Lt Gen Hameed’s court-martial had been initiated in connection with a private housing scheme scandal. It added today that three other army officials had also been taken into custody in relation to the case against Gen Hameed.

The management of Top City, the private housing scheme in question, had levelled grave allegations against the former ISI chief, claiming that he had orchestrated a raid on the offices and residence of its owner, Moeez Khan, and had taken away valuables, including gold and diamond ornaments and money, in connection with a purported terrorism case.

While the news dominated the headlines, this was not the first time the army held one of its officers accountable for wrongdoing.

Here is a list of some high-profile army officials whose accountability caught public attention.

NLC scam — Lt Gen (retired) Khalid Munir Khan, Lt Gen (retired) M. Afzal Muzaffar

In 2009, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) initiated an inquiry after the National Logistics Cell (NLC) reported that it suffered a loss of Rs1.8 billion between 2004 and 2008. The loss was incurred as a result of loans from commercial banks being given at high interest rates and investing Rs.4bn of pensioners’ money in stock markets. Additionally, kickbacks were received from companies through which the money was invested.

The inquiry by the Planning Commission carried out under orders from PAC revealed that there were financial irregularities, lack of transparency, and failure to observe rules and regulations caused by reckless decisions of the chain of command at NLC.

The inquiry pointed to the involvement of former quartermasters Lt Gen (retd) Khalid Munir Khan and Lt Gen (retd) M. Afzal Muzaffar, former NLC director general (retd) Maj Gen Khalid Zaheer Akhtar, and two civilians — Najibur Rehman and Saeedur Rehman. A quartermaster general, by virtue of the office, is the officer in charge of the NLC.

In light of the findings of the investigation committee, the then army chief, Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, decided to proceed against the accused under the Pakistan Army Act’s Section 94 instead of referring the matter to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). An Army Court of Inquiry was convened in November 2010, and preliminary findings were reported to the army chief in February 2011. Subsequently, a formal investigation was ordered by Kayani to allow a fair trial.

In 2015, the investigation concluded, revealing that two retired general officers and one civilian officer were responsible for making improper investment decisions in violation of NLC rules and regulations.

The two generals were punished under the Army Act. Khalid Zaheer was “dismissed from service” while Afzal Muzaffar was penalised with “severe displeasure (recordable)”.

Espionage — Lt Gen (retired) Javed Iqbal

Lt Gen (retd) Javed Iqbal was convicted by the Field General Court Martial (FGCM), on May 30, 2019, of “espionage/leakage of sensitive information to foreign agencies prejudicial to the national security”.

In May 2021, the 14-year sentence was commuted by the appellate authority for seven years. Later, former army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa further reduced the sentence by another two and a half years just before his departure from the GHQ.

The jailed general was, therefore, scheduled to be freed on May 29 last year, but the new Army Chief Gen Asim Munir finished the sentence completely, paving the way for his early release.

Attempted coup — Maj Gen Zaheerul Islam Abbasi and others

Maj Gen Zaheerul Islam Abbasi, Brig Mustansir Billah, Col Mohammad Azad Minhas, Col Inayat Ullah Khan, and 38 other military officers were arrested on September 26, 1995, on charges of plotting to storm a corps commanders’ meeting, to be held on Sept 30 at the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi.

The alleged plan included the assassination of then-prime minister Benazir Bhutto and the then-army chief Gen Waheed Kakar, senior cabinet ministers, and military chiefs, to be followed by the proclamation of the Islamic system of Khilafat with Maj Gen Abbasi as Ameerul Momineen.

The details of the conspiracy were revealed after Qari Saifullah Akhtar, one of the conspirators and chief of his breakaway faction called Harkat-ul-Jihad al Islami, turned an approver.

On his witness, the FGCM awarded seven years of imprisonment to retired Maj Gen Abbasi, when a large cache of arms and military uniforms were confiscated. The FGCM also awarded a 14-year jail term to Brig Mustansir Billa for his alleged involvement in the attempted coup.

Col Minhas and Col Khan were court-martialled in Sept 1996 for their alleged role in the conspiracy by the FGCM and sentenced to four years each in prison by a military court.

Mutiny and terror links — Brigadier (retired) Ali Khan

In 2011, Brig Ali Khan was arrested on charges of having links with banned outfit Hizb ut-Tahrir. Along with Maj Inayat Aziz, Maj Iftikhar, Maj Sohail Akbar, and Maj Jawad Baseer, the four accused were convicted in the case.

The FGCM awarded a sentence of five years of Rigorous Imprisonment (RI) to Brig Ali Khan.

Maj Sohail Akbar was awarded three years RI while Maj Jawad Baseer was sentenced to two years RI, whereas Maj Inayat Aziz and Maj Iftikhar were awarded one year and six months of RI each.

Brig Khan was also accused of being involved in conspiring to topple the government, trying to instigate a mutiny within the army, and planning an attack on the GHQ. He was released in 2016, after serving his five-year term.

During the seven-month-long proceedings, five military officers recorded their testimonies from the prosecutor’s side.

The officers had claimed that the accused, Brig Khan, provoked them to mutiny against the civil leadership.

Removed from service

There have also been instances when general officers instead of being brought in for a court-martial were removed administratively after disciplinary proceedings.

Gen (retd) Ziauddin Butt, made army chief in October 1999 by the then-prime minister Nawaz Sharif, was kept in custody for two years. In a conversation with Dawn, Butt said that he was given a hand-written order that he was removed under Section 16 of the Pakistan Military Law and Manual of Pakistan Military Law but was never court-martialled.

In 2016, in one of the biggest corruption purges in the military, six army officers including two serving generals — Lt Gen Obaidullah Khattak, inspector-general arms, and Maj Gen Ejaz Shahid — were sacked during the tenure of Gen Raheel Sharif.

In 2015, the general officers involved in the NLC scam were also removed from service after disciplinary proceedings.

Not court-martialled despite SC orders

While there are great examples of how the army has held its officials responsible for wrongdoing and taken action against them, there have been instances when the institution failed to do so despite receiving orders from the apex court.

In 1996, Asghar Khan had filed a human rights petition in the SC, accusing the ISI of doling out Rs140m to a group of politicians in the 1990s. Among the accused were former army chief Aslam Beg and former director general of the ISI Lt Gen (retd) Asad Durrani. Durrani confirmed the allegations in an affidavit to the apex court. In it, he admitted his role in the affair, named the other players, and elaborated on how the scheme unfolded.

Following that, in a landmark judgement on Oct 19, 2012, the SC asked the defence ministry to initiate necessary action against the officials for their role in dishing out the money.

By 2019, according to a report submitted by the defence ministry to the SC during the hearing of a plea by Asghar Khan’s family for implementation of the judgement, the defence ministry had constituted a court of inquiry, which had recorded the statements of six witnesses and was looking for more witnesses.

Another ‘court of inquiry’ to investigate Durrani was set up in 2018. The court of inquiry was made to look into the book ‘The Spy Chronicles: RAW, ISI, and the Illusion of Peace’ and determine if its content and Durrani’s involvement with the book was culpable.

Three years later, while opposing Durrani’s request for the removal of his name from the no-fly list, the Ministry of Defence accused him of being involved in anti-state activities, alleging that he was either “affiliated or interacting with hostile elements, especially Indian RAW [Research and Analysis Wing], since 2008”, in a report submitted before the Islamabad High Court (IHC).

However the IHC removed Durrani’s name off the Exit Control List (ECL), with the judge remarking that “according to the record, there was no inquiry underway at the time.”