PM grants extension in service to IB DG

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has decided to retain his intelligence chief, Fuad Asadullah Khan, by granting him an extension in service as Director General Intelligence Bureau. A BS-22 officer, Fuad was set to retire on coming Friday.

A source in the PM Office told The News that PM Shehbaz Sharif sent an advice on this to President Arif Alvi, who has approved it. It will be notified soon. Fuad is the first-ever IB officer who rose to the rank of BS-22 and was appointed chief of the agency. He was twice decorated with gallantry awards like Tamgha-e-Shujaat and Sitara-e-Shujaat in 1996 and 1997. He was a core member of Aftab Sultan’s team who served first with PM Yusuf Raza Gilani and later with PM Nawaz Sharif as the IB chief.

Incidentally, Nawaz had also granted an extension to Aftab Sultan as DG IB. He was appointed NAB chairman after Shehbaz Sharif became the PM in April this year. Aftab Sultan’s tenure is considered among the best in the agency’s history during which it thoroughly transformed as competitive agency which played a lead role in many counter-terrorism operations, including the Karachi operation conducted during the previous PMLN government. Fuad has served at important positions and counter-terrorism is considered his main forte. He was among more than dozens of officers who were sidelined after Imran Khan took over as PM and he appointed Dr Suleman as IB chief in May 2018. By then, the agency’s focus shifted from counter-terrorism to finding corruption of political opponents of PTI. Fuad returned to the mainstream after Shehbaz Sharif assumed office. Incidentally, he never had any meeting with PM Shehbaz Sharif before he took charge. The PM was satisfied with Fuad’s performance and therefore, granted him a one-year extension, a source said. When he took oath as PM, the appointment of IB chief was among the few major decisions he made in the beginning. The first thing Fuad did after taking charge was to conduct the performance audit of the organisation and found many things in disarray. The agency regained its professionalism and returned to counter-terrorism activities under his watch. Since April this year, it has conducted around 1,500 intelligence-based operations which led to busting of 23 terrorist networks and 124 gangs involved in heinous crimes. As many as 229 miscreants were arrested including high value TTP militants and more than 200 proclaimed offenders wanted in different cases were apprehended. The busting of Bilal Sabit gang is also credited to the IB. Its operation was personally supervised by Fuad when the agency was working in coordination with Islamabad and Rawalpindi Police. Besides criminal activities like murders, robberies, kidnapping for ransom and extortion, the gang was providing on-ground support and operational space to Daesh and had links across the border. The gang had unleashed a reign of terror not only in KP but also in twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi as well as other parts of the country. It was involved in the killing of additional secretary KP Noman Afzal as well as officials of law enforcement agencies.