Pakistan Appoints New Head of Its Powerful Spy Agency

Pakistan’s government appointed a new head of its powerful spy agency on Monday, filling the job as the country confronts complex internal issues and increasing external security challenges, analysts say.

Currently serving as the adjutant general, Lt. Gen. Muhammad Asim Malik is set to take over the leadership of the agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, or ISI, on Sept. 30.

Syed Muhammad Ali, a security analyst based in Islamabad, said that General Malik’s leadership would be key to the way Pakistan handled an array of challenges, including the threat of terrorism and internal unrest.

The top role at ISI is often viewed as the second most powerful position in Pakistan because the person holding the post typically wields huge sway over domestic politics and foreign policy. This influence has led some to describe the ISI as a “state within a state.”

“One of the biggest international challenges for Pakistan will be to balance U.S. economic support and security cooperation against terrorism with its need to attract Chinese investment for economic stability,” Mr. Ali said.

He added that maintaining the trust of China’s government to protect the country’s workers in Pakistan and its investments in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor from terrorist threats would be another responsibility for the new ISI chief.

Domestically, General Malik will have to address the lingering political instability and turmoil after the 2022 ouster and subsequent imprisonment of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, whose party has been forcefully protesting for his release. Mr. Khan and his party have accused the ISI of rigging the general elections held on Feb. 8.

Several judges of the high court also complained to the country’s Supreme Court this year about pressures and intimidation by the spy agency to ensure that Mr. Khan remained in jail.

Saleem Qamar Butt, a former brigadier with an intelligence background and one of General Malik’s former military instructors, described him as a “thoroughbred infantry officer who excelled in his command and staff postings.”

General Malik, who is the son of a senior army general, has an impressive military background. He earned the sword of honor as a cadet at Pakistan’s top military academy and is a graduate of Fort Leavenworth in Kansas and the Royal College of Defense Studies in London.

“He is a straight shooter and follows the book,” Waqar Hasan Khan, another retired brigadier and defense analyst, said about the incoming spy chief.

General Malik has vast experience on the antiterror front, having been posted previously in Baluchistan, which has been reeling with an increasingly violent insurgency, and in northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province, where Pakistani Taliban militants have started to regain strength in recent years, Mr. Khan, the analyst, added.