Ex-Pakistan Intelligence agency chief’s brother arrested on corruption charges

Former ISI chief Lt. Gen Faiz Hamid’s brother has been arrested on charges of corruption in Pakistan’s Punjab province, anti-graft authorities said on Monday, as the new government appears to take revenge against those who targeted the Sharif family under Imran Khan’s regime.

“Revenue officer Najaf Hamid, brother of former ISI head Faiz Hamid, was arrested on Monday in Chakwal (about 350 kilometres from Lahore) on the charges of corruption and misuse of authority,” an Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) spokesperson said.

He said the suspect would be presented before a magistrate for his physical remand. Chakwal is the hometown of Hamid. Najaf’s arrest has come against the backdrop of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) crackdown against those responsible for the ouster of Nawaz Sharif from power in 2017.

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz was more categorical in her demand to bring former army chief Gen (Retd.) Qamar Javed Bajwa, Faiz Hamid and former chief justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar to justice “for their crime to institute fake cases against the Sharif family and sending them to jail”.

“Action against Faiz Hamid’s brother shows that the PML-N government is in no mood to spare those instrumental in the ouster of Nawaz Sharif. Maryam Nawaz and her father have more anger against Faiz Hamid than others as being the ISI chief, he had grilled the Sharifs.

Now it is payback time,” an official of the Punjab government told PTI. He said in the coming days, the government will further tighten the noose against jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leaders and the elements in the establishment that had backed the cricketer-turned-politician. Imran Khan has been in jail since August last year in different cases.