Birth name Nadeem Taj Service number (PA-14489) Rank Lieutenant-General | Years of service 1972-2011 Role Military officer Allegiance Pakistan Name Nadeem Taj | |
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Commands held Adjutant-General of ArmyMilitary Secretary to the Prime ministerDG Military Intelligence (DGMI)DG Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)11th Army Infantry DivisionPakistan Military Academy, KakulXXX Corps Similar People | ||
Lieutenant General Nadeem Taj Arain, HI(M) (born 29 April 1953) is a retired three-star general in the Pakistan Army who served as its Adjutant General (AG) in the GHQ. Previously, he headed the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan's premier intelligence agency and Military Intelligence, military's main intelligence body, in addition to Commander of the XXX Corps at Gujranwala.
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Musharraf's aide
Taj was commissioned in the Pakistan Army's Punjab Regiment in August 1972 in the 2nd Special War Course. His name came into prominence when he as a Brigadier-General was accompanying the then-Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff and Chief of Army Staff General Pervez Musharraf on his way back from Sri Lanka on 12 October 1999 when their plane was denied landing at Jinnah Terminal, Karachi, brewing a crisis that ultimately led to overthrow of the elected government of Premier Nawaz Sharif. Taj was also with Musharraf during the assassination attempts on him in December 2003.
Chief of Intelligence
Taj was promoted to Major-General on 1 February 2002 and was already serving as the Military Secretary (MS) to the President of Pakistan (different from Military Secretary (MS), GHQ). It was during this time when Musharraf's convoy was attacked in Rawalpindi. Shortly after that incident, Taj was appointed Director-General of Military Intelligence (DGMI) in December 2003 in place of the newly promoted-Lieutenant General Tariq Majid who proceeded as the new Chief of General Staff. Taj was himself replaced as President's MS by Maj Gen Shafaat Ullah Shah. Taj continued as DGMI till February 2005, when he was replaced by Maj Gen Mian Nadeem Ijaz Ahmed.
Command and staff appointments
On 29 September 2008, The Australian reported that "Washington is understood to be exerting intense pressure on Pakistan to remove ISI boss Nadeem Taj and two of his deputies because of the key agency's alleged "double-dealing" with the militants."
Taj took over the Gujranwala Corps after the incumbent Lt Gen Waseem Ahmad Ashraf retired from the army on 4 October 2008. He was later shifted as the Adjutant General (AG) of Pakistan Army on 29 April 2010 replacing Lt Gen Javed Zia who in turn was appointed as Commander, Southern Command in Quetta.