In a rare conviction, former spymaster Faiz Hameed was sentenced on Thursday to 14 years rigorous imprisonment under the Army Act.<\/p>\n
Hameed, who served as the chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency from 2019 to 2021, was under trial since August last year.<\/p>\n
The statement released by the military\u2019s media affairs wing stated Hameed was found guilty of charges related to engaging in political activities, violation of the Official Secret Act detrimental to safety and interest of the state, misuse of authority and government resources and causing wrongful loss to persons.<\/p>\n
However, his troubles may not be over as the statement added that his \u201cinvolvement of [the] convict in fomenting vested political agitation and instability in cohorts with political elements and in certain other matters is separately being dealt with\u201d.<\/p>\n
Here is what analysts and politicians have to say.<\/p>\n
\u2018Took political engineering to its peak\u2019
\nSenior journalist Shahzeb Khanzada, while speaking to Geo News, was of the opinion that \u201cPakistan has always had a problem of political engineering, but Faiz Hameed took it to its peak\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe set a precedent for manipulating the judiciary,\u201d Khanzada said, recalling the disqualification of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.<\/p>\n
The journalist also held Hameed responsible for \u201charming the country, democracy, media, judiciary, and his own institution\u201d.<\/p>\n
Khanzada noted that out of the four charges mentioned in the statement released by the ISPR today, \u201clegal proceedings against him regarding his involvement in politics remain to be seen\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cFaiz Hameed is a character in Pakistan\u2019s history who left no stone unturned in harming the country, democracy, and in misusing his authority,\u201d Khanzada added.<\/p>\n
\u2018Good beginning\u2019
\nJournalist Mubashir Zaidi, reacting to the decision, said that Hameed\u2019s conviction was a \u201cgood beginning\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cLife sentencing of former ISI chief Gen Faiz Hameed for involvement in politics is a good beginning. There shouldn\u2019t be any room for the military\u2019s involvement in politics,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u2018Ominous and critical\u2019
\nMeanwhile, journalist Khurram Husain termed the last paragraph in ISPR\u2019s press release \u201ccritical and ominous\u201d.<\/p>\n
The paragraph states that the former spymaster\u2019s involvement in \u201cfomenting vested political agitation and instability in cohorts with political elements and in certain other matters is separately being dealt with\u201d.<\/p>\n
According to Husain, \u201cIt could point towards using Faiz Hameed\u2019s testimony to convict [former prime minister] Imran Khan on charges of conspiring to incite mutiny within the armed forces.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Historic decision\u2019
\nPPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari termed the sentencing of the ex-spymaster a \u201chistoric decision\u201d.<\/p>\n
Speaking to the media in Chiniot, he said Hameed was \u201ctoday being held answerable for his crimes\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mentioning Hameed\u2019s alleged \u201cinterference [in politics]\u201d and \u201cirresponsible acts\u201d, he said that if today\u2019s decision was implemented, it would be a \u201cclear message that such mistakes will not be committed again\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In a rare conviction, former spymaster Faiz Hameed was sentenced on Thursday to 14 years rigorous imprisonment under the Army Act. Hameed, who served as the chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency from 2019 to 2021, was under trial since August last year. The statement released by the military\u2019s media affairs wing stated Hameed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14137,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14136"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14138,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14136\/revisions\/14138"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}