On November 20, 2021, the rotation of the heads of the powerful Pakistani Interdepartmental Intelligence (ISI) finally took place: the former commander of the Baloch Border Regiment and the army headquarters in Karachi, Lieutenant General Nadim Anjum, became its new head.

And the former head of the ISI Faiz Hamid changed his civilian business suit to a military uniform and took over the leadership of the Peshawar regiment.

Lieutenant General Nauman Mahmood handed over Command of 11 Corps Peshawar to Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed today at Corps Headquarters # Peshawar # PakistanArmy # Pakistan # ISI # DGISI # ISPRpic.twitter.com / TAOXsr9ECG

- Pakistan Armed Forces 🇵🇰 (@PakistanFauj) November 22, 2021

I wrote earlier about the political crisis with far-reaching consequences caused by the dismissal of Lieutenant General Faiz Hamid from this post, about the actual war that began between Prime Minister Imran Khan and the head of the Pakistani army, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, perhaps the most influential person in the country today. and why Bajwa decided to change the head of ISI's intelligence.

We are interested in this, first of all, because the change of the head of the Pakistani intelligence service will one hundred percent affect the internal political situation in Afghanistan.

Which, through the efforts of the previous chapter, was taken with lightning speed in August by the Taliban * and quickly turned into the "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan".

On November 18-19, 2021, the outgoing ISI head Faiz Hamid paid farewell visits, widely covered by the Pakistani press.

He visited Prime Minister Imran Khan, Foreign Minister Mahmoud Kureishi and other top officials in Pakistan.

An interesting detail: Faiz Hamid did not "say goodbye" publicly to Bajwa, the head of the Pakistani Armed Forces who removed him.

They managed, as they say, without polishing.

The dismissal of the most influential head of the ISI in Pakistani politics, announced by the army, took place, let me remind you, on October 6, 2021, and was approved by the Prime Minister on October 26.

But while the public wondered impatiently whether the prime minister would yield to the army or defend the head of his intelligence service, the political establishment knew that the prime minister would have to yield.

Therefore, for example, on October 21, a huge Pakistani delegation went to Kabul, which was officially headed by Foreign Minister Kureishi, and unofficially by Faiz Hamid with the heads of ISI divisions, who transferred cases and, which would be logical, putting his people in Afghanistan at key points to burn bridges and not lose control of the intra-Afghan situation.

It looks like it was an emotionally difficult trip for the iron general: the Pakistani and Afghan media noted that they first saw the secular Faiz Hamid with a Muslim rosary in his hands.

The Pakistani delegation was met by the head of the Afghan Foreign Ministry, and the Afghan prime minister appointed by Pakistan came out to meet them in the government palace.

In the end, as we remember, ISI created the Taliban *, and in August 2021, General Faiz Hamid, together with his American colleagues, brought the Taliban to power in Afghanistan.

  • Lieutenant General Faiz Hamid (far right)

  • © Video frame / Pakistani Foreign Ministry

It was logical that, having actually created the state of the "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" with the structure of its government, army, security services and intelligence, Faiz Hamid would not leave without leaving behind a working structure, the levers to control of which are in his hands.

The high-profile terrorist attack that took place in early November in Kabul is indicative in this regard: the same "Islamic State" **, which suddenly "resurrected" in Afghanistan along with the rise to power of the Taliban, took responsibility for the attack on the military hospital where the militants were receiving treatment. Taliban and former Afghan security forces.

As it became known almost immediately after, one of the main targets of the attackers was Mullah Hamdullah Mohlis, one of the commanders of the Taliban special forces "Badri 313" and the ex-governor of Paktia and Khost provinces, who turned out to be a personal enemy of Sirajuddin Haqqani, the head of the Taliban Interior Ministry and one of the key characters. the ISI's Haqqani Network.

In a word, before he went into the shadows - to command the Peshawar regiment - the head of the ISI actively displaced and removed pieces on the Taliban chessboard.

At this very time, General Nadim Anjum, Bajwa's protégé, surrendered the post of commander of the army corps in Karachi and was preparing to become a world celebrity: the post of head of the Pakistani Interdepartmental Intelligence Service will be heard and in full view of the whole world due to the exclusively direct influence of Pakistan and its ISI intelligence on Afghanistan and against the Taliban.

Unlike Faiz Hamid, about whom very little was known even after his appointment in 2019 (in the English-speaking segment of the Internet there is almost no information about where he studied, for example), there is enough information about the new chapter to understand who he is and who could lobby for his appointment.

So, Nadim Anjum, who became the head of Pakistan's Interdepartmental Intelligence Service on November 20, 2021.

Unless serious incidents occur, he is guaranteed to remain in this post for one year - along with General Bajwa until the end of his term, which expires in November 2022.

Lieutenant General Nadim Anjum began his career in the army as part of the light anti-tank battalion of the Punjab regiment.

Graduated from the Combined Arms Center UK, Staff College Quetta, Advanced Staff Course UK, NDU in Islamabad, American APCSS in Hawaii and the Royal College of Defense Studies of Great Britain.

He holds a master's degree from King's College London.

Kamran Khan, President and Editor-in-Chief of Dunya Media Group, writes: “Officials who have worked with General Nadeem Anjum recognize him as being of the highest caliber.

Great time manager.

Very disciplined.

Excellent British military education.

Truly apolitical! "

Translated from the diplomatic language, it sounds like this: "Disciplined, apolitical, does not have big ambitions, is never late, he does everything on time and on time, in a word, he is an excellent performer."

Certainly a great characteristic for the candidate you are considering hiring.

But are these the best recommendations for the head of one of the most influential intelligence services in Asia, which is directly orchestrating the crisis and peace in Afghanistan?

Yes, if the leadership of this intelligence is actually carried out by a strong, domineering experienced player.

In short, my congratulations to General Bajwa on the perfect choice.

As I wrote earlier, Nadim Anjum's "strong" qualification lies in the fact that he has extensive experience in Baluchistan and its capital Quetta, the most important province for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in Pakistan.

Emphasizing the authority of the newly appointed head of intelligence, accounts affiliated with the press service of the army are posting on Twitter and other social networks about the reverence with which "ordinary Quettans kiss the hands of a just general."

New DG ISI Lt Gen Nadeem Anjum, when he was IG FC Balochistan.


In the video he was meeting with people in Bazar of Quetta.


# FCBalochistanpic.twitter.com / jj9S3LpsIc # Hamas

- Huma Baloch (@ HumaBaloch21) November 17, 2021

Quetta and the port of Gwadar are one of the key strategic sites of CPEC, the Achilles heel of the vulnerable security of the Chinese and their multi-billion dollar projects in Pakistan.

It was against the Chinese in Baluchistan that some secret groups within Pakistan were beaten when the ISI was ruled by Faiz Hamid.

These were suicide attacks on representatives of the Chinese state, and strikes, and riots of Guadar fishermen against Chinese trailers, and the blowing up of a car near the hotel where the Chinese ambassador was staying ... And what is the July bus bombing with Chinese engineers working on a hydroelectric project in Dasu, who has put the entire CPEC project in jeopardy!

In short, putting an absolutely loyal and apolitical protégé at the helm of the ISI, Bajwa is trying to close the issue of Baluchistan's vulnerability.

Just as the serious British military educational background of Lieutenant General Nadim Anjum indirectly confirms my assumption that Faiz Hamid was pursuing precisely American interests in Pakistan (and Afghanistan), pushing Bajwa with his friendship with the British commander-in-chief Sir Nick Carter (sent for "Afghan failure" to resign along with British Foreign Minister Raab) and pretty much broke British ambitions in the Af Paka region over the summer and fall of 2021.

What to expect from rotation at ISI?

I believe we will notice a reverse acting out of the situation in favor of pro-British interests and candidates, such as, for example, the possibility of the return to Pakistan of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, whom Faiz Hamid (not without the help of the top generals of the army, of course) forced out to London.

In London, changes await the national security adviser to former President Ashraf Ghani Hamdullah Mohib, for example, and many others.

It is possible that other participants in the Afghan process will begin to push for the return of those written off by Faiz Hamid and the US Hamid Karzai (who suddenly again actively burst into the media agenda) and Abdullah Abdullah.

It is possible to assume rotation in the Taliban government of Afghanistan and the appointment of Mullah Baradar as prime minister, about whom many supporters of "inclusion", including Iran and Great Britain, are busy.

In the treasury of Afghanistan, as they say, a mouse hanged itself, and therefore, for a while, the radical Haqqani Network will be forced to retreat into the background, giving place to the usual politicians-showmen of Afghanistan, thus, whose luxurious palaces-houses, thanks to honest service for the benefit of the homeland, shocked the Taliban youths in August 2021.

An inclusive government will help unfreeze the financial assets of Afghanistan, attract humanitarian aid, maybe even some madmen will invest something in the country under the guarantees of an “inclusive” prime minister (for example, Abdul Ghani Baradar).

  • Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar

  • AP

  • © Administrative Office of the President

It should be admitted that at the moment in Afghanistan there really is a significant national imbalance in the system of public administration.

So, just a week ago, the Taliban appointed governors of the provinces of Afghanistan: out of 34 people - five Tajiks, one Uzbek, one Turkmen, but not a single Hazara.

Moreover, the Hazaras make up up to 1/3 of the country's population (and, by the way, are Iran's support heel in Afghanistan).

I bet that Pakistan will give the go-ahead for the much-remembered "inclusiveness" to the delight of the Chinese, Iranians, British and others;

the Hazaras will be pulled into the government, and under the regular terrorist attacks and the further revival of ISIS, all this will last a year or two.

Because even the Pashtun Abdul Ghani Baradar, who, by the way, was named by the American Time magazine as one of the most influential people in the world in 2021, went through a serious Pakistani school - from February 2010 to September 2013 he was in a Pakistani prison.

And according to serious experts on the topic, only successful “students” who had been trained at the ISI high school were allowed to come out of it alive and were allowed back to the Taliban to “make decisions”.

Baradar graduated from this school with honors - he became the head of the Quetta Shura in the Taliban.

And Faiz Hamid, displaced back into the army, was sent to lead the army headquarters in Peshawar, the Pashtun capital and capital of the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the former center of the anti-Soviet Mujahideen movement, with the Tribal Territories annexed to it in 2018.

Holding the threads of Afghan tribes in the border Pakistani-Afghan Tribal Areas is a competitive advantage over the new head of the ISI, who knows the Baloch west of the country and the Iranian border territories well.

What does this all mean?

Only that a possible Afghan truce will be short-lived.

* "Taliban" - the organization is under UN sanctions for terrorist activities.

** "Islamic State" (IS, ISIS) - the organization was recognized as terrorist by the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of December 29, 2014.

The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.