The founder of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Imran Khan, has distanced his party from the arrest of Lt-Gen (retd) Faiz Hameed, the former director general of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), calling it an internal military problem. On Tuesday, Intezar Panjutha, Khan’s attorney, spoke to the media after the legal counsel met with senior attorneys at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi. He revealed that the founder of the PTI had called on the people to demonstrate peacefully tonight in support of freedom, emphasizing the significance of going to the streets for the nation.
Panjutha expressed Khan’s worries about the Supreme Court being under increasing pressure, youth disillusionment, and the worsening situation in Pakistan, drawing negative comparisons with Bangladesh. Khan continued, saying he thought it was time for Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa to resign, pointing out that the PTI had supposedly lost three seats the day before.
Panjutha cited Khan as claiming that there was no connection to the PTI and that Gen. Faiz’s arrest was solely a military matter. He went on to say that there had been no political relationship between Khan and Gen. Faiz, asserting that Gen. Faiz had been replaced by former army head General Qamar Javed Bajwa following his agreement with Nawaz Sharif.
In addition, Panjutha mentioned that Khan proposed that if General Faiz’s detention was connected to what happened on May 9, now would be the right time to establish a judicial commission and release the day’s CCTV footage. According to the ISPR on Monday, the nation’s former spymaster, Lt-Gen (retd) Faiz Hameed, was arrested by military officials in an unprecedented action, and court martial procedures were started against him on allegations of corruption, abuse of power, and breaking the Pakistan Army Act.
Since former Prime Minister Imran Khan selected General (retd) Faiz Hameed as the head of ISI during his time, the two were considered close allies. After the army chief, the head of the ISI is typically regarded as Pakistan’s most powerful military officer. General Asim Munir, the current Army chief and the head of the ISI, was abruptly removed during Hameed’s tenure. This was allegedly due to Munir’s presentation of evidence claiming that Khan’s close aide Farah Gogi and wife, Bushra Bibi, were involved in corruption.
Speculation and extensive reporting suggested that Imran intended to name Hameed as the Army’s next commander following General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa’s retirement in November 2022. He was one of the six generals whose names Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif received from GHQ to be considered for the top military post in 2022. The military has disputed that Khan’s departure from office in April 2022 was planned by them. Khan was removed from office by a vote of no confidence.
He continued to lead a campaign of resistance against the armed forces, and his arrest for graft in May 2023 set off widespread protests that descended into violence and saw an unparalleled outpouring of resentment toward army facilities. His party faced a broad crackdown in response, and even though they were made to compete as independent candidates, they went on to win the most seats in the general elections held in February.
