Until not too long ago, Lt-Gen Faiz Hameed’s star was unmistakably in the ascendant. But since then, the now retired general has come a cropper in all manner of ways.

On Wednesday, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah revealed that the former ISI chief, along with his brother, is being investigated for corruption. It is rare for probes to be conducted into allegations against senior military officials accumulating assets beyond means, although rumours on this score about Gen Hameed had been swirling for some time.

Meanwhile, PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz has called for a court martial of the retired general over his purported role in bringing down her father’s government and implicating both her and Nawaz Sharif in NAB cases.

In a history strewn with men in uniform whose overweening ambitions have thwarted democracy from taking root in Pakistan, Gen Hameed turned out to be among the most controversial, even though he never became army chief. While the military’s unconstitutional interference in politics throughout Pakistan’s existence has been admitted by former army chief Gen Qamar Bajwa himself, Gen Hameed’s meddling role first came to light with the Faizabad dharna in 2017. That protest, yet another quasi-manufactured crisis to undermine a civilian government, was brought to an end with an agreement signed by Gen Hameed, then DG, Counterterrorism.

As the passage of time and the shift in political tides have revealed, the DG C was also tasked with queering the pitch for the 2018 elections and then manipulating the post-poll scenario to ensure a majority for the PTI. Indeed, the scope of Gen Hameed’s ‘operations’ had so expanded under the then COAS that he could well have been the de facto ISI chief. Under his direction, journalists — whose freedom to report is the gauge of any democracy — were intimidated and micromanaged to a point where many media houses began resorting to self-censorship and/or became shameless propagandists for the state-approved narrative. After being appointed ISI chief, Gen Hameed became yet more powerful, the veritable wind beneath the PTI government’s sails, which explains then prime minister Imran Khan’s extreme reluctance to post him out.

From that point on, what had once appeared an assured path to becoming army chief began to unravel for the general. Even before the allegations of corruption were confirmed by the government, the massive upsurge in terrorism across the country had taken the shine off his reputation, given that as corps commander Peshawar, he was leading the ill-fated negotiations with the banned TTP.

As Mr Sanaullah said on Wednesday, while commenting on Ms Nawaz’s demand for Gen Hameed to be court-martialled, that is for GHQ to decide.

However, if the military wants to seize the moment to demonstrate it is indeed distancing itself from political engineering, it should consider holding Gen Hameed accountable for his misdeeds.

Published in Dawn, March 10th, 2023