Director-General of Inter-Services Intelligence

The Director-General (DG) is head of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan's premier intelligence service, operationally responsible for providing critical national security and intelligence assessment to the government of Pakistan. Walter Cawthorn had conceived the idea of ISI. Afterwards, Brigadier Syed Shahid Hamid took over and was later promoted to a two-star rank of a major general and became the second director-general of the ISI.^[1][2]

Director-General of Inter-Services Intelligence
Insignia of the ISI
Flag of Pakistan
Incumbent Lieutenant General Asim Malik, HI(M) since 30 September 2024
Inter-Services Intelligence
Abbreviation	DG ISI
Member of	National Security Council
Residence	Chaklala, Rawalpindi
Appointer	Prime Minister
Term length	3 years
Inaugural holder	Walter Cawthorn
Formation	1948

The current DG of ISI is Lt. General Asim Malik since 30 September 2024.^[3]

List of directors

#	Portrait	Name	Start of term	End of term
1		Major General Walter Cawthorn[1]	January 1948	June 1948
2		Brigadier Syed Shahid Hamid HJ	14 July 1948[4][5]	22 August 1950
3		Brigadier Mirza Hamid Hussain[4]	23 August 1950[6]	May 1951
4		Colonel Muhammad Afzal Malik[4]	May 1951	April 1953
5		Brigadier Syed Ghawas[4]	April 1953	August 1955
6		Brigadier[4] Malik Sher Bahadur	August 1955	September 1957
7		Brigadier[4] Muhammad Hayat	September 1957	October 1959
8		Brigadier Riaz Hussain[4]	October 1959	May 1966
9		Major General Muhammad Akbar Khan[7]	May 1966	September 1971
10		Major General Ghulam Jilani Khan	September 1971[8]	16 September 1978[9]
11		Lieutenant General Muhammad Riaz Khan	17 September 1978	26 April 1979
12		Lieutenant General Akhtar Abdur Rahman NI(M) HI(M)	27 April 1979	29 March 1987
13		Lieutenant General Hamid Gul HI(M) SBt	29 March 1987	29 May 1989
14		Lieutenant General Shamsur Rahman Kallu HI(M) TBt	30 May 1989	August 1990
15		Lieutenant General Asad Durrani HI(M)	August 1990	13 March 1992
16		Lieutenant General Javed Nasir HI(M) SBt	14 March 1992	13 May 1993
17		Lieutenant General Javed Ashraf Qazi HI(M) SBt	14 May 1993	October 1995
18		Lieutenant General Naseem Rana	October 1995	October 1998[9]
19		Lieutenant General Ziauddin Butt HI(M)	October 1998	12 October 1999
20		Lieutenant General Mahmud Ahmed HI(M)	20 October 1999	7 October 2001
21		Lieutenant General Ehsan ul Haq HI(M)	7 October 2001	5 October 2004
22		Lieutenant General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani HI(M) SI(M) TI(M)	5 October 2004	8 October 2007
23		Lieutenant General Nadeem Taj HI(M) TBt	9 October 2007	29 September 2008
24		Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha HI(M)	1 October 2008	18 March 2012
25		Lieutenant General Zaheerul Islam HI(M)	19 March 2012	7 November 2014
26		Lieutenant General Rizwan Akhtar	7 November 2014	11 December 2016
27		Lieutenant General Naveed Mukhtar	11 December 2016	25 October 2018
28		Lieutenant General Asim Munir HI(M)	25 October 2018	16 June 2019
29		Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed HI(M)	17 June 2019	19 Nov 2021
30		Lieutenant General Nadeem Anjum	20 November 2021	29 September 2024
31		Lieutenant General Asim Malik	30 September 2024[3]	Incumbent