Ex-ISI chief being probed for corruption: Pakistan's Minister

Islamabad, March 9 (IANS) Lt General (retd) Faiz Hameed, the former chief of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), is being investigated for alleged corruption, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah revealed.

The Minister said that a probe was underway against the former spy chief and his brother over alleged corruption and accumulating assets beyond means, Dawn news reported.

However, he said it would be premature to say anything further at this stage.

When it was pointed out that any probe into assets beyond means would fall in the domain of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Sanaullah said an investigation was already underway.

"When something surfaces, you will be informed," he added.

Separately, PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz has also called for the retired general's court martial over his alleged role in bringing down her father's government and implicating both her and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in NAB cases in 2017, Dawn reported.

Unlike her arch-rival Imran Khan, who is demanding the court martial of the previous army chief, Maryam stopped short of seeking any major punitive action against retired Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, saying that as of now, she wanted to make an example of Gen Hameed.

"I had spoken against Gen Hameed in court when he was the sitting ISI chief for his alleged involvement in getting me and Nawaz Sharif punished. I had evidence against him," she said, referring to former Islamabad High Court judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui's claims that the spy agency tried to prevail on him to issue a verdict of their liking.

Meanwhile, Gen Hameed also seemed to break his silence over the fresh wave of allegations being levelled against him -- by the PML-N in general and Maryam Nawaz in particular -- when he told a journalist that it is the army chief who calls the shots in the military.