ISLAMABAD: Former director general (DG) Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lieutenant General (retd) Faiz Hamid has yet again skipped the hearing of the Faizabad Dharna Inquiry Commission (FDIC), as he did not appear before the commission on Friday, MEDIA reported on Saturday quoting sources.
This was the second time that the former ISI chief has remained absent from the hearing being conducted by the inquiry commission, which earlier summoned him in the second week of December this year and then on December 29, sources said.
The commission has, therefore, issued the former spy chief another summon notice through the Defence Ministry, ordering him to cooperate in the inquiry, the sources maintained.
The former ISI chief has now been asked to record his statement in the second week of January 2024 for the third time.
Gen (retd) Faiz is being summoned to record his statement on the sit-in staged by the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) at the Faizabad flyover in Islamabad in November 2017.
Meanwhile, Joint Director General Intelligence Bureau (IB) Sajid Kiani had, on December 19, recorded his three-hour-long statement before the inquiry commission wherein he ruled out any aspect of interference from any other institution during the operation against the TLP, the sources had said.
Sajid Kiani was serving as senior superintendent of police (Operations) in Islamabad in 2017 at the time of the Faizabad sit-in.
The probe panel was constituted on the order of the Supreme Court of Pakistan under the chair of retired IGP Akhtar Ali Shah after the apex court rejected the fact-finding committee report constituted by the government.
On November 15, Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa had remarked that the commission would be empowered to summon anyone, including former army chiefs, prime ministers and chief justices.
It is important to note that the commission has also probed former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, ex-interior minister Ahsan Iqbal, then-secretary to PM Fawad Hasan Fawad and other senior officials serving in Islamabad and Punjab who were involved in the episode.
