Lieutenant General Mahmud Ahmed

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Author: Sameer Shah

Lieutenant General Mahmud Ahmed is a former head of Inter-Services Intelligence, the principal intelligence body of Pakistan. He along with other generals were successful in overthrowing the elected government of Nawaz Sharif, in the 1999 coup d'etat to bring General Pervez Musharraf to power. He was serving as the Corps Commander Rawalpindi at that time. After the coup, General Mahmud was transferred as the Director General ISI, replacing Lieutenant General Ziauddin Butt, who was Sharif's choice to replace General Musharraf as the army chief before the coup. He himself was replaced by Lieutenant General Jamshed Gulzar Kayani as the Rawalpindi Corps commander.

In October 1995, when Lt Gen Ali Kuli Khan was appointed Rawalpindi Corps Commander by then army chief Gen. Abdul Waheed Kakar, Mahmud Ahmed took over from him as DGMI. Mahmud was promoted to Lt Gen in June 1998, and posted by Gen. Jehangir Karamat, then COAS, as Commandant, National Defence College. On taking over as the COAS in October, 1998, Gen. Musharraf brought him as Commander X Corps replacing Lt Gen Salim Haider who proceeded as Corps Commander Mangla. Mahmud was posted, after the coup, as DG, ISI, in place of Lt.Gen. Ziauddin Butt.

Lt General Mahmud Ahmed was later nominated for the ceremonial post of Colonel Commandant of the Corps of Artillery at the Artillery Regimental Center on 17 March 2001. He had replaced the outgoing colonel commandant Lt General Saeed Uz Zafar. Mahmud was later replaced by Lt General Khalid Ahmed Kidwai as the colonel commandant on 13 October 2004.

General Mahmud was known to visit the United States regularly during his time as the head of ISI consulting senior officials in the U.S. administration in the weeks before and after 9/11. In fact, he was with Republican Congressman Porter Goss and Democratic Senator Bob Graham in Washington, discussing Osama bin Laden over breakfast, when the attacks of September 11, 2001 happened. He was immediately called into meetings with American officials where demands of Pakistani cooperation were made and he was told to convey this to the Pakistani government.

General Mahmud Ahmed opposed the US invasion of Afghanistan. He was retired from his role in the ISI on 8 October 2001, just prior to the US invasion of Afghanistan. He was replaced by Lieutenant General Ehsan ul Haq as the Director General ISI.

He is now a member of Tablighi Jamaat and preaching the teaching of Islam.