Pakistan appoints Lt General Asim Malik as head of powerful spy agency

Tariq Butt, Correspondent

Lt General Muhammad Asim Malik has been appointed as the Director General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISi) to take charge of the position on September 30, the state-run Pakistan Television (PTV) announced on its official X account.

The new appointee is currently serving as the adjutant general at the General Headquarters (GHQ) of Pakistan Army in Rawalpindi, the statement said.

He will be replacing Lt Gen Nadeem Anjum, who was picked up for the position in 2021 by then-prime minister Imran Khan on the insistence of the then army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa.

In October 2021, then-Major General Asim Malik had been promoted to the rank of lieutenant general and was then appointed the adjutant general.

During the course of his military career, he served in the Balochistan infantry division and commanded the infantry brigade in Waziristan, the PTV said and highlighted that he had been awarded a Sword of Honour during his army service.

Other than that, Gen Malik also served as the chief instructor at the National Defence University (NDU) in Islamabad and as an instructor at the Command and Staff College Quetta.

The military officer is a graduate of Fort Leavenworth in the United States and Royal College of Defence Studies in London, the statement added.

He belongs to a military family and his father Ghulam Muhammad was also a lieutenant general in the Pakistan Army.

The outgoing ISI chief retired from the army service last year, but was retained in this post after he was given extension in service.

The post of ISI director general, usually a serving military officer, is one of the most powerful positions in Pakistan, at the intersection of domestic politics, the military and foreign relations.

While the ISI chief technically reports to the prime minister, he is controlled by Pakistan’s army chief.