By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The government has named Lieutenant General Muhammad Asim Malik, head of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), as the new National Security Adviser (NSA), the first time a serving ISI chief will hold both roles simultaneously.
The Cabinet Division announced the appointment on Wednesday, confirming that Gen Malik will retain his position as ISI director general, which he has led since September 2024.
“Lt Gen Muhammad Asim Malik HI(M), DG (I), shall hold the additional charge of the National Security Adviser, with immediate effect,” the division said.
The NSA, a minister-level post, advises the Prime Minister on national security, foreign policy, and strategic affairs, and manages the National Security Division at the Prime Minister’s Secretariat.
Gen Malik becomes Pakistan’s tenth NSA, filling a vacancy left since April 2022 when Moeed Yusuf resigned.
The move coincides with escalating tensions with nuclear-armed rival India after the killing of 26 tourists last week in the Pahalgam area of occupied Kashmir, which India blamed on Pakistan. Islamabad rejected the accusation and called for a neutral probe.
The Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi government and its allied media call for military action. Modi granted ‘operational freedom’ to his military. Islamabad has warned it would deliver a ‘befitting response’ to any aggression.
Since the incident, both countries have exchanged gunfire across the Line of Control in Kashmir, closed borders and trade and airspaces and revoked decades-old accords.
While past NSAs have had military ties, Gen Malik’s dual role marks an unprecedented consolidation of intelligence and security duties.
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