Dr Muhammad Khan
IT was really hurting to read an article written by Ayesha Siddiqa about the new ISI Chief, General Faiz Hameed. The author while ignoring the professional honesty needed for a scholar, tried to malign a thorough professional soldier for the reasons better known to her. In her article entitled, ‘New ISI chief Faiz Hameed a manipulator picked by Army Chief Bajwa to be his master’s voice‘ published in ‘The Print’ on 21 June 2019, the author has portrayed a detrimental depiction of the General and his professional competency which is against the ground realities. As I know the General, being a colleague at National Defence University (NDU), where he was a senior instructional staff and I was heading the Department of International Relations, I found him a highly professional soldier, totally dedicated to his institution and nation. Indeed, General Faiz has an excellent quality of having unquestionable integrity and devotion with profession and nation. Like a good commander General Faiz has the habit of taking little more than his share of work and blame and little less than his share of the credit.
Strategic organizations like ISI needs innovative approach, empowerment and decentralization of authorities while promoting the element of trust among leader and the led. The General is known for creating an efficient working environment wherever he served including as head of one of the components of ISI. It is wrongly claimed by the author that, Army Chief has appointed Gen. Faiz as ISI head owing to a previous affiliation and regimentation. Indeed, selection of General Faiz has been done on the criteria of right man for the right job, a reality which could not be perceived by the author. Army Chief, General Bajwa is well known for the strict merit system and accountability in Pak Army. Professionalism and devotion may not be bothering the Ayesha Siddiqa but, it does bother to those forces that pull strings of the author for their vested interests and ulterior motives. These forces have always been critical to ISI and its chiefs. Have Ayesha Siddiqa and people of her school of thought ever criticised CIA, which is globally known as killing machine. CIA is responsible for international conspiracies and causing death of millions of innocent people across the globe for the vested interests of United States.
In my research, I failed to find Ayesha Siddiqa’s articles on roles and bosses of CIA. Besides, the Indian spying network, RAW has key role in destabilization of entire South Asian region and surrounding regions. Former heads of RAW openly confessed the Indian plan of disintegrating Pakistan into pieces. It was even publically revealed by people like Ajit Doval (Indian NSA) and VK Singh, the former Indian Army Chief. Ayesha Siddiqa may not be accused for her unfair approach towards ISI and its bosses; however, her credibility as a neutral and rational writer with negative intent is really questionable. Otherwise, who uses her and for what purposes is an open secret now. From her write up, it appears that either she has some personal grudges against ISI and Pakistan Army or else doing all this to please those forces which are unhappy with professionalism of ISI and its bosses. Analysing the ISI and armed forces of Pakistan, it is worth mentioning that, three services of Pakistan (Army, Navy and Air Force) act as a strong combat force to defeat and destroy the enemies of Pakistan in physical term. The premium intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI) act eyes and ears for the country at strategic level.
In fact, ever since its establishment, this premium organization has acted as the first line of defence. It provided information and early warnings about the global and regional happenings with particular emphasis on the issues concerning Pakistan. Moreover, ISI through its efficient organizational structure and dedicated work force timely inform the political and military leadership about the emerging threats and approaches to counter those threats. In last two decades, ISI has very successfully unearthed and destroyed the network of terrorism, which the foes of Pakistan have established to destabilize and weaken its society, destroy state structure and create a rift among the armed forces and masses. It has successfully unearthed the; promoters, supporters, financers and sympathizers of terrorism, extremism and radicalization domestically as well as externally.
Indeed, this premium intelligence agency helps all other government institutions within Pakistan with a view to timely reacting against any eventually. Its efficient chain of command and well established and timely information system has greatly helped countering and combating the domestic and international threats, facing the God gifted state of Pakistan. This all has been possible because of an efficient and devoted team work of this premium intelligence setup, headed by the most efficient list of bosses and an all-time operational hierarchal system. The bosses selected by Pak Army to head ISI have always been highly competent, professionally efficient with a strategic outlook and forward looking while remaining well abreast on changing international environment. Selection of General Faiz Hameed to head this strategic organization (ISI) was made keeping in view the abovementioned factors and with the aim of timely countering the emerging challenges to state and society of Pakistan. General Faiz is a strategic commander; ‘who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way.’
June 28,2019
Source: Pakistan Observer