Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar has said that the service tenure of the current Director General of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lieutenant General Nadeem Ahmed Anjum Sheikh has been extended to preserve the “continuity” of policy at a time when the country is facing increasing militant attacks.
This is the first time a Pakistani official has publicly addressed the extension, which comes at a critical juncture for the nation grappling with heightened security challenges.
“Try to understand the point on continuity [of policy]. Any system prefers and supports the idea of continuity,” Kakar told Arab News in an interview with Mehreen Zahra Malik this week when asked why Anjum was given an extension.
“You want to have a continuation of the process, and for you the continuation of that process is important so that idea or practice or brand gets entrenched,” the PM added, without disclosing specific details of the policies the government and military wanted Anjum to continue to implement.
“So, in that context at times in many institutions, you do feel, or the political dispensation feels, that some individual has to continue for any security benefit or otherwise, and they [the state] have got the discretion to do that [grant extension]. There’s nothing unusual and abnormal about it.”
Lt. Gen. Anjum, initially scheduled to retire later this month, will now continue to lead the ISI for at least another year. While the military has yet to formally announce the extension, speculation has been rife in Pakistani media for weeks that the General will serve for another year.
The Director General of the ISI holds a pivotal role at the crossroads of national politics and foreign relations, overseeing efforts to counteract militant threats.
The agency’s influence is not without controversy, as it has played a historical role in military coups and the management of political affairs, leading civilian politicians to regard it with a certain degree of apprehension.
The last ISI chief to receive such an extension was Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha, coinciding with major anti-militant offensives in the country’s northwest.
Lt. Gen. Anjum’s extension occurs against the backdrop of a surge in militant activities by groups like Daesh and Pakistan’s indigenous Taliban movement, the TTP. The latter, emboldened by the rise of the Afghan Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan, has intensified its activities, posing a significant security challenge for Islamabad.
Lt. Gen. Anjum assumed the role of DG ISI on November 20, 2022. Since then, the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has renounced a cease-fire with the government, leading to a resumption of attacks on various military and civilian targets, including police compounds and security convoys.
