The Chief of Army Staff, Gen Qamar Bajwa, has appointed Lieutenant General Nadeem Ahmed Anjum to the position of lynchpin for the DG ISI
The tinny Abpara region of Islamabad is home to the most shady component that is part of Islamabad’s Pakistani “establishment” ie, the headquarters of the spy agency known as known as the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence). Famous for its nicknames such as “State within a State”, “rogue agency” or as the former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif bluntly called it “Khalai makhlooq” (extraterrestrial aliens)! It is the umbilical cord that runs through Pakistani government is publicly portrayed by the façade of a civilian-run government in Islamabad however it is largely managed by the defiant Pakistani Generals operating from 20km away in the townships of the garrison called Rawalpindi which is where is the Pakistan Military’s General Head Quarters (GHQ) is located.
The keeping an eye, ear, and mind on the activities and oversight of Pakistani government is the primary responsibility that Director General ISI (DG ISI), who is supposedly directly accountable on behalf of the Premier Minister, but as an officer in uniform is certainly a tyrant to his Pakistani military. This places the extremely sensitive role for Director General ISI DG ISI as second most popular and powerful position within the Pakistani military structure (if not across the entire Pakistan). The power for the incumbent to influence the national government’s priorities, agenda and tone is enormous considering that the office has seen notorious DG’s such as General Hamid Gul whose sense of extracurricular activities earned the institution many international condemnation and fear. The latest sighting of the former DG ISI landing in the chaos and mass exodus of Kabul with a terrifying statement saying that “everything will be okay” was quickly followed by the appearance of a “coup” within the Taliban’s ranks, with ISI’s preferred and dangerous Haqqani faction taking over the Afghan Taliban direction.
