Former Federal Law Minister Zahid Hamid said that Director General of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt. Gen. (retd) Faiz Hamid met him during the Faizabad sit-in and asked him to resign from his ministerial post.
ISI Chief Allegedly Pressured
According to the former minister, on November 26, 2017, the junior officers of ISI Lahore came to his house to accept his resignation.
The minister’s statement was mentioned in the report of the Faizabad Dharna Commission before which he appeared as part of the inquiry.
The commission of inquiry was formed on the orders of the Supreme Court following the case related to the 2017 sit-in in Faizabad headed by former Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) chief Khadim Hussain Rizvi.
Zahid, who lost his ministry due to the Faizabad sit-in, told the commission that he had two meetings with the ISI during the sit-in. The first ministry was with two persons in law, whose ranks were unknown to them. He said he was probably a colonel-level officer.
Zahid said he wanted to know about their plans, after which he told them about following the instructions of the then Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and his party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
He said that Hamid, who was the head of the ISI’s counter-intelligence wing at the time of the sit-in and held the rank of Major General, met him a second time and asked him if he would be willing to give a short-term solution to the crisis. Can you consider resigning?He said they thought that if he went on vacation for some time, the TLP people might be satisfied with that too.
He told the former spy master that he had submitted his resignation to the Prime Minister but he was not ready to accept it.
The prime minister told Zahid not to take any pressure, adding that he would dissolve the government and not allow his minister to resign.
Also Read:Iran Announcement of Tough Response to Israeli Attack
He further said that unfortunately, when the police action failed, he realised the only alternative would be the intervention of the army, which would not be good. In this situation, he once again asked the leadership to accept his resignation, and the PM reluctantly agreed to his resignation, and he was informed about it by the then-chief minister of Punjab, Shehbaz Sharif.