Top City case proves to be Faiz’s ‘Waterloo’

ISLAMABAD: Former ISI chief Faiz Hameed is the third general officer who will be facing court-martial proceedings. The retired lieutenant general is charged with misusing his position to extort money from a private housing society.
Previously, military courts have convicted a two-star and a three-star general for mutiny and espionage, respectively.
Though another ex-director general of ISI, Javed Ashraf Qazi, along with some other officers — including a three-star general — faced a corruption reference in connection with the Royal Palm Golf and Country Club on railways’ land in Lahore, the case was eventually closed by an accountability court.
The case against Gen Faiz is based on a petition filed by the incumbent chief executive officer of the Top City housing society, Kanwar Moeez Khan, before the Supreme Court in November.
The petition said that on May 12, 2017, the Pakistan Rangers and ISI officials raided the offices of the housing project and the residence of Mr Moeez in connection with a purported terrorism case and took away gold and diamond ornaments, money and other valuables.
Gen Faiz reportedly took the action against the petitioner on a complaint of Zahida Javed Aslam, a Pakistan-born British national, who claimed that Mr Moeez was her employee and had fraudulently transferred the project’s land in his name.
In her complaint, Ms Aslam claimed that Mr Moeez used to look after her real estate business in return for a monthly salary.
She claimed Mr Moeez transferred the properties in his name in an alleged fraudulent manner, and when she tried to retrieve them, he threatened her with dire consequences.
According to a report submitted by FIA to then-chief justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar, on the basis of photocopies of original documents, the land was transferred in the name of Mr Moeez.
Mr Moeez, on the other hand, contended in his petition that Gen Faiz’s brother Sardar Najaf mediated and tried to resolve the issue.
After a Rawalpindi-based ATC acquitted him in the terrorism case, the petition claimed, Gen Hameed contacted him through his cousin — a brigadier in the army — to arrange a meeting.
The petition claimed that during the meeting, Gen Hameed told Mr Moeez that he would return the items taken away during the raid, except for 400 tola gold and cash.
The petition alleged that retired brigadiers Naeem Fakhar and Ghaffar of the ISI “forced” the petitioner to “pay 4 crores [rupees] in cash” and “sponsor a private TV network for a few months”.
The Supreme Court, however, asked the petitioner to approach the relevant forums, including the defence ministry, for redressal of his grievances.
Previous court martials
In the recent past, retired Lt Gen Javed Iqbal Awan was convicted by the Field General Court Martial (FGCM) for sharing ‘classified information’ with foreign spies and awarded 14 years’ rigorous imprisonment, but a military court of appeal reduced his sentence and he was released from prison in December last year.
Gen Iqbal was awarded the prison term on May 30, 2019 after being convicted of “espionage/leakage of sensitive information to foreign agencies prejudicial to the national security”, but eventually came out of jail after four years.
Earlier, Maj Gen Zaheerul Islam Abbasi, Brig Mustansir Billah, two colonels and 38 other military officers were arrested on Sept 26, 1995, on charges of plotting to storm a corps commanders’ meeting, to be held on Sept 30 at the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi.
They had also allegedly plotted to proclaim ‘Khilafat’ or Islamic rule, with Maj Gen Abbasi as ‘Amirul Momineen’ after assassinating then-prime minister Benazir Bhutto and then-army chief Gen Abdul Waheed Kakkar, senior cabinet ministers and senior military officers.
Generals sacked administratively
In a number of cases, instead of court-martialling general officers, the military has removed them after disciplinary proceedings.
Retired Lt Gen Ziauddin Butt, who was made army chief in 1998 by then-prime minister Nawaz Sharif, was also taken into custody.
According to former judge advocate general retired Brigadier Mohammad Wasif Khan Niazi, Ziauddin Butt was not put before the FGCM but dismissed from service.
In 2016, the military shared the details of those removed from service during the tenure of then-army chief Gen Raheel Sharif, including a three-star general Obaidullah Khattak for corruption.
A two-star general, then-IG FC Ejaz, was also dismissed by Gen Sharif.
In 2015, the general officers involved in a multi-billion National Logistics Cell scam were also punished by GHQ.
Brig Niazi said these officers were sacked after disciplinary proceedings.
Published in Dawn, August 13th, 2024