India, Dec. 14 -- Only two directors general of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) have ever been deprived of their liberty since the agency was created in 1948, and only one has died due to accidental or disputed causes. That unprecedentedly small number underscores the extraordinary insulation enjoyed by the ISI's top leadership inside Pakistan's military system. It is against this backdrop that the 14-year imprisonment of former ISI chief Lt Gen Faiz Hameed, who headed the agency from June 2019 to October 2021, stands out as one of the rarest ruptures the country has witnessed at the highest level of its security establishment.

The first ISI chief to ever lose freedom was Lt Gen Ziauddin Butt, who was briefly detained during...