Javed NasirHI(M)SBt (Urdu: جاويد ناصر; 22 December 1936 – 16 October 2024) was a Pakistani military officer who served as the Director-General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), appointed on 14 March 1992 until 13 May 1993.[1]
Javed Nasir was born in Lahore, Punjab in British India on 22 December 1936,[2]: 112 [3]: 834 and was Punjabi Kashmiri.[4]: 148 [5]: 169 After his intermediate from Government College, Lahore, Nasir joined the Pakistan Army and entered in the Pakistan Military Academy at Kakul in 1953. He was commissioned in the Corps of Engineers in 1958 and commanded a sapperplatoon. Between 1958 and 1959 he was attached to the Frontier Force Regiment as an infantry officer, serving as Company 2 i/c and staff officer-communications of an infantry battalion. He was attached to the East Pakistan Rifles as a company commander between 1959 and 1962. Thereafter he commanded a pioneer company attached to the Independent Engineering Brigade, Force Command Northern Areas Gilgit between 1962 and 1964. Promoted to major in 1964, he was posted as an instructor at the Engineering Corps Recruit & Training Depot Risalpur.
In 1966, he was assigned to a staff position in the Quartermaster General office in the GHQ until the end of the year. He was then posted as a senior instructor in the Military College of Engineering, Risalpur until 1969. He attended the Command & Staff College Quetta for senior Command Course (to be eligible to command Battalions and Brigades) in 1969–1970. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 1971 and to Colonel in 1976. For a time between 1978 and 1980 he commanded an infantry battalion i.e. the 3rd Battalion, Azad Kashmir Regiment. He was thereafter posted as Colonel GS of the 25th Mechanized Division, Malir. He was promioted to brigadier in 1981 and commanded the Independent Engineering Brigade at Gilgit until 1983. Thereafter he was posted as a Senior Instructor in Command & Staff College Quetta until 1985 until being promoted to major general. His first assignment as major general was as major general – engineering, attached to the office of DGMO, GHQ.[6] He gained commission as second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers of the Pakistan Army, where his career was mostly spent.[6]
In the military, he was of the view of anti-American sentiments, accusing the United States of using Islam for political reasons and against Russians in Europe, which further complicated the foreign relations between two nations.[15]: 14 He also limited the cooperation between the ISI and CIA to fight against the global terrorism, thwarting any joint efforts to fight against extremism.[15][16] Though, he did help the US to relocate and retrieve the missing guided missiles from Afghanistan based on a mutual understanding of such weapons may have fallen into wrong hands.[17]
It was during this time when ISI had been running an intensified support of insurgency in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir.[18] In spite of his seniority in the military, Nasir was overlooked, and was never considered for the promotion of the four-star rank and appointment by the government during the appointment process for the command of the Army, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS).[17]Lt-Gen Nasir was among the five senior and superseding army generals when the junior-most Lt-GenAbdul Waheed Kakar was elevated to the four-star rank and promotion to command the army.[17]
In the military and political circles, Nasir had a reputation to be a practising Muslim who would not compromise on the interests of Islam and Pakistan. In 1992–93, Nasir defied the UN arms embargo placed on Bosnia and Herzegovina when he successfully airlifted the POF's sophisticated anti-tank guided missiles, which helped the Bosnian Muslims to force the Serbs to lift the siege much to the annoyance of the U.S. government.[1][19] While airlifting sophisticated anti-tank guided missiles to Bosnian Muslims, he pushed the Government of Pakistan to allow the Bosnian immigration to Pakistan.[20]
The Chairman joint chiefs General Shamim Alam had completely lost the control of the ISI when the agency was running under Nasir's command.[21]: 26 General Abdul Waheed Kakar, the army chief at that time, had been at odds with Lt-Gen. Nasir due to his preaching of Islamic tradition in the military.[17] In the views of senior military officers in the Pakistani military and the civilian officials of the Ministry of Defence, Lt-Gen. Nasir was often a figure of fun whose intellect was far from being as outstanding as his white beard.[22]
In 1993, the United States formally registered their complaints to Pakistan when U.S. secretary of State James Baker had written a memo to Prime Minister Sharif putting his country on a terror watch list and was in danger of being listed as terror-supporting nation.[21]: 27–28 Responding to the complaint, Prime Minister Sharif used diplomacy when he sent his Foreign SecretaryShahryar Khan and Pakistan SenatorAkram Zaki to United States assuring of Pakistan's policy of not supporting the militancy in the region.[21]: 27–28
During this time, several Arab countries such as Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, and the Philippines, lodged a strong protest against Nasir of supporting the radical movements in their respected countries.[23]: 152 [24]
Following the removal of Prime Minister Sharif, the caretaker Prime Minister Balakh Sher Mazari fired and sacked Nasir from the directorship of the ISI, and President of PakistanGhulam Ishaq Khan approved his premature retirement from his military commission effective from on 13 May 1993[25]: 170 — he only led the ISI for 13 months.[26]
Upon Nasir's dismissal, the new DG ISI, J.A. Qazi eventually led the massive arrests of thousands of Arab Afghans and forced the al-Qaeda to relocate itself in Afghanistan permanently.[27]: 147–149 After expulsion from Pakistan, many escaped to Bosnia to participate in the war.[27]: 149 According to many political commentators and journalists, Nasir's firing from ISI was not at the behest of the United States but, it was the friendly Arab countries' protests and pressure at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) that resulted in his departure from ISI and the retirement from his 40-year long service with the military.[25]: 170
Later life
After his premature retirement, Nasir became a missionary for a Tablighi Jamaat, and went to the private sector where he managed and chaired the private equity firm and hedge fund, the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB), when he was appointed on 14 July 1997 for a two-year contract.[25]: 171 [28]
In 1998, he was appointed chairman of Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, an organisation promoting the well-being of Sikhs in Pakistan as well as pilgrimages from abroad.[29] In October 1998, Prime Minister Sharif appointed him as his intelligence adviser but this appointment remained for short period of time.[29]: 408 For sometime, he served on the security details as head of security for the Sharif family, but the PML(N)'s lawmakers and Sharif family cut off their links and distanced themselves from Nasir after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States in 2001.[30]
In 2002–03, Nasir filed a lawsuit at the Anti Terrorism Court against the media corporations: the Daily Jang, and the News International, for character defamation when investigative articles published on him regarding monetary embezzlement when he managed the private hedge fund in Lahore.[31]
In 2007, he appeared on the Geo News and denied any allegations of terror-supporting that was levelled on him during his time as Director ISI, when interviewed by Iftikhar Ahmad.[17] At this detailed and hour-long interview, he was of the view that 9/11 was an inside job, and maintained his stance on the suppressing of the free-energy by the U.S. and Pakistan Government.[17]
In 2013, Nasir reportedly spoke against Afghan Taliban and the terrorism at the Supreme Court convention, and criticised the Taliban as an armed violent group and criticised their supporting the violent terrorism for their cause, in a response to the church bombing.[30]
Nasir died in Lahore on 16 October 2024, at the age of 87.[33]
^ abcKiessling, Hein (2016). "A Dialogue with Javed Nasir"(google books). Faith, Unity, Discipline: The Inter-Service-Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan (1 ed.). London, UK: Oxford University Press. p. 310. ISBN9781849048620. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
^ abcdNasir, Lt-Gen. Javed (May 1998). "Ghauri and its Aftermath". www.defencejournal.com. Islamabad, Pakistan: Defence Journal. Archived from the original on 12 September 2017. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
^ abcdefAhmad, Iftikhar (25 November 2008). "DG ISI Nasir in Jawab Deh". www.youtube.com (in Urdu). Islamabad, Pakistan: Geo News Jawab Deh. Archived from the original on 13 December 2021. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
^Lodhi, PhD, Dr. Maleeha (14 May 1993). "Removal of Javed Nasir". The Newsline. Islamabad, Pakistan: Dr. Maleeha Lodhi, The Newsline. The Newsline.
^ abcJoshi, P.C. (2008). Main intelligence outfits of Pakistan. New Delhi: Anmol Publications. ISBN9788126135509.
^Asian Bulletin. APACL Publications. 1993. p. 44. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
^ abScott, Peter Dale (2007). "The Afghan Arabs after 1990"(google books). The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America (1st ed.). Palo Alto, Ca.: University of California Press. p. 400. ISBN9780520929944. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
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