Javed Nasir

Lieutenant-General Javed Nasir (Urdu: جاويد ناصر; HI(M)), is a now-retired engineering officer and former director-general of the Inter-Services Intelligence, directed from March 1992 until May 1993.

An educator and professor by profession, Nasir played an instrumental role in uniting the scattered mass of warring Mujahideen groups after the Soviet retreat, Nasir played an integrated role installing the first Mujahideen government in Afghanistan. Nasir played an active role on behalf of Bosnia and Herzegovina and provided logistics and ammunition supplies to Bosnian Army, while harboring Bosnian immigrants to Pakistan. Noted for being the first general to have a full-grown beard against military tradition of having only clean-shaved generals in the Pakistan Army, Nasir joined the far-right parties after his military retirement and since has been an active writer on political Islam and Islamic parties in Pakistan.

career in the military
Javed Nasir passed the university entrance exams with high academics and enrolled in the prestigious Military College of Engineering to study engineering in 1954 at the same time, Nasir entered in the Pakistan Military Academy. In 1958, Nasir obtained BS with honors in Civil engineering and graduated from PMA in October 1958 in the 18th PMA Long Course. Ultimately, he was elevated to 2nd Lieutenant in the Pakistan Army and served in the 141st Engineer Brigade posted in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.

He took active participation in 1965 war and 1971 war with India. After the war, Nasir attended the National Defence University (NDU) and master's degree in Strategic studies. In 1978, Nasir went to Australia on deputation and attended the Australian Army Staff College where he gained master's degree in War studies and returned to Pakistan in 1980. He continued his service with Corps of Engineers and promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel and commanded the 107th Engineer Brigade in Karachi. In 1982, he was promoted to Colonel; and Brigadier in 1984. The same year he joined the faculty of NDU and served as Chief Instructor (CI) of the Armed Forces War College (afwc) at the National Defence University. He served there as CI for three and a half years from January 1984 to July 1987 before being promoted to two-star rank, Major-General. In 1987, he joined the ISI and subsequently served director of Joint Intelligence Technical (JIT), a department concerned with counter-proliferation and promotion of science and technology in the military.

On 4 September 1991, Chief of Army Staff General Mirza Aslam Beg approved to three-star promotion of Nasir and was elevated as Lieutenant General; he subsequently appointed as the Engineer-in-Chief of Corps of Engineers. This prestigious appointment remains short when chief of army staff general Asif Nawaz posted him to Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POF) as its chairman on 4 February 1992. On 14 March 1992, Prime minister Nawaz Sharif approved the appointment of Lieutenant-general Nasir as the director general of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) which he directed until his retirement from military service on 13 May 1993.

Ojhri Camp Cleanup
In 1988, as director of JIT, he was in charge to clean up the Ojhri Camp disaster. Against the estimated period of six months given by United States and French experts, he led his team to clean up the entire dump containing millions of blinds by setting a personal example of handling the highly sensitive blinds with his own hands, in a record period of just 15 days without suffering a single casualty.

Enforcement of Peshawar Accord
After reaching to three-star assignment and rank, a lieutenant-general, in 1991, he was appointed director general of the ISI on 14 March 1992. His first major role was to bring all the warring factions of the Afghan Mujahideen to agree to the Peshawar Accord and successfully install the Mujahideen’s first government under Prime minister Sibghatullah Mojaddedi in Kabul.

Arms supply to Bosnian Muslims
During the Bosnian War of 1995, he helped supply of arms to the Bosnian Muslims defying the UN embargo. He airlifted sophisticated anti-tank guided missiles to Bosnian Muslims.

Post-Army activities
In July 1997, the retired general became the chairman of Evacuee Trust Property Board, an organization which since its inception in 1960 had generated a total revenue of Rs. 1.17 billion. General Nasir, after taking over raised a total revenue of Rs. 1.225 billion in four years, exceeding the total revenue the department earned in the last 37 years.

During his tenure, the general learned the free hand RAW (Indian Intelligence) had been having since 1948 in the manipulation and control of the Sikh Pilgrims during the four religious functions, which Evacuee Trust Property Board used to arrange. In order to protect from the infiltrators, the general constituted a Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (PGPC) in April 1999, which was given the responsibility of maintaining the Sikh Gurdawaras and holding the Sikh holy functions. The success of this organization is uncertain.

Allegations of fraud
On 25 August 2002, Pakistani newspapers wrongly published the headlines that Lieutenant General Javed Nasir and his team of elite officials including S.M Patwari and Khwaja Shahid Nazeer were among the key players, the General fled the country with Rs. 3.3 billion. Nonetheless, the general not only claimed innocence, but also sued the press and the government. The News published the story on 24 August 2002, and reported that the general embezzled Rs. 3 billion and fled the country. The general clarified in a television interview on the same night that he did not commit any crime and did not flee the country, but was actually visiting Malaysia on a Tablighi mission. After this the government abandoned its investigations against the General.

Views
He has written over 100 articles. His pro-Islam, anti-India stance has created a very large readership in Pakistan and abroad.