Major General Rizwan Akhtar of Pakistani Army is seen in this July 2012 file photo during a ceremony at Attari, some 30 km from the northern Indian city of Amritsar. Pakistan appointed Akhtar the new chief of ISI on Monday.
AFP/Islamabad
Pakistan on Monday named a new head of its main intelligence agency, considered the second most powerful official in the military after the army chief.
The naming of Rizwan Akhtar as director general of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) agency comes as a protest movement to topple the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif enters its second month.
His appointment will be closely scrutinised for any clues over how it may affect the current impasse and civil-military relations, in a country where the security establishment has traditionally wielded heavy political influence.
A senior minister said that protest leaders Imran Khan and Tahir-ul-Qadri were being supported in their quest to topple the government by some elements within the intelligence.
But they were eventually overruled by the army chief Raheel Sharif, according to diplomatic sources. Both protest leaders vehemently deny the charges.
Akhtar's appointment was announced in a tweet by army spokesman Major General Asim Bajwa along with the promotions of other senior army officers. The current ISI chief Zaheer-ul-Islam is due to retire in October.
The final decision on appointing the chief rests with the prime minister, who was presented with a list of names to choose from.
An army statement said Akhtar, who was also promoted from major-general to lieutenant-general, would formally take the role on November 8.
He joined the army in 1982, and is a graduate of Quetta's Command and Staff College and the National Defence University in Islamabad. He also undertook a course in the US, the statement said.
Akhtar previously headed the paramilitary Rangers force in the southern province of Sindh, where he oversaw a major operation against criminal syndicates and Taliban militants in the city of Karachi that began last year.
