ISLAMABAD – Lt Gen Naveed Mukhtar, an Intelligence veteran, has been appointed chief of Pakistan’s powerful spy agency ISI with new army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa effecting the first big reshuffle to tighten his hold on the military, that plays a key role in the country’s affairs.
As part of a major shake-up of the military top brass, Bajwa abruptly removed Director-General of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt Gen Rizwan Akhtar and named Mukhtar in his place, while also ringing in several other changes.
Lt Gen Akhtar, who was at the centre of a controversy following a Dawn newspaper report which said that the Nawaz Sharif government had told the army to either act against terrorists or the country would face international isolation, has been shunted out as president, National Defence University (NDU). The nomination of the new ISI chief was delayed for a short time as initially the army announced that the incumbent head was removed and appointed as president of NDU. However, later in the night, the new ISI boss was also named, ending speculation. Akhtar has headed the counter-terrorism wing of the spy agency in Islamabad. He was commissioned in the Armoured Corps regiment in 1983. There was speculation sometime back that Prime Minister Sharif wanted to appoint Mukhtar as the ISI chief but the then army chief Raheel Sharif resisted the move.
It is believed that the new ISI chief enjoys the confidence of both the civilian and military leadership and it would go a long way in healing differences between them, observers said.
