Lieutenant General Rizwan Akhtar appointed as ISI chief

Lieutenant General Rizwan Akhtar on 22 September 2014 was appointed as the new head of the Pakistan’s spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). He will replace Lt-Gen Zaheerul Islam who is scheduled to retire in October 2014.

Rizwan Akhtar was promoted from major-general to lieutenant-general to assume the new role. He is considered as an ally of Army chief General Raheel Sharif.

The Pakistan military also promoted five other officers to lieutenant general rank to replace outgoing personnel. Other generals who have been promoted to Lt Gen ranks include Ghayyur Mehmood, Hidayat ur Rehman, Hilal Hussain, Navid Mukhtar, and Nazir Butt.

Lt Gen Akhtar will take over ISI from 1 October 2014 along with four other Lieutenant Generals.

Lieutenant General Rizwan Akhtar
• Akhtar is a graduate of the Command and Staff College in Quetta, National Defense University and the Army War College, USA.
• He is from the Frontier Force Regiment and commanded the infantry brigade and infantry division in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
• He has served in a place like Karachi while remaining neutral and apolitical and has extensive experience of counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism.
• Being the head of the paramilitary Rangers force in the southern city of Karachi, he launched a major operation against criminal gangs and Taliban militants.
• Between 2007 and 2010, he was posted in the South Waziristan tribal region where Pakistan Taliban militants are known to have sheltered.