Director-General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)
Born: N/A
Profession: DG ISI
Affiliation(s): Pakistan Army
Citizenship: Pakistani
General Rizwan Akhtar was commissioned in the Pakistan Army in Frontier Force Regiment in September 1982. General Rizwan Akhtar is a graduate of the Command and Staff College in Quetta, National Defense University and the Army War College, USA
In 2010, General Rizwan Akhtar was third in the seniority list of major generals and was among the leading scorers at the military’s Officers Efficiency Index.
As a Major General, Rizwan Akhtar was also part of the Infantry, 9th Infantry Division, Kohat, which was one of the three divisions that had conducted “Operation Rah-e-Nijat” in South Waziristan in 2009-2010, besides having conducted “Operation Zalzala” in South Waziristan in 2008 and Battle of Wana in 2004.
In recent past, he had served as a high-profile DG Rangers Sindh, who played a key role in taking terrorists to task and had enjoyed complete support of Army Chief General Raheel Sharif and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in this context.
Akhtar is also considered to have extensive experience of counterinsurgency from a previous posting in the border region of South Waziristan. "He is a professional soldier who has experience of both Fata and internal security in Karachi,”
The ISI was established in 1948 - as Pakistan engaged India in the first war over Kashmir - and became the primary institution running the intelligence operations of the army, air force and navy. In 1948, ISI was first headed by Colonel Syed Shahid Hamid. Interestingly, one ISI boss—- Lt Gen (R) Ashfaq Parvez Kayani—was the only ISI chief to become Chief of the Army Staff during the last 66 years.
General Rizwan Akhtar will take over as head of the ISI on October 8, 2014. General Rizwan Akhtar replaces Lt-Gen Zaheerul Islam who is scheduled to retire in October.
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