Rizwan Akhtar


Rizwan Akhtar is a former three-star rank Pakistan Army general. He is a former spymaster who served as Director-General of the Inter-Services Intelligence. He took office on 8 November 2014. On 8th Oct 2017, he announced his pre-mature retirement from service

Military career

Rizwan Akhtar was commissioned in the Pakistan Army in the Frontier Force Regiment in September 1982. He commanded an infantry brigade and infantry division in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas after served as Operation and Planning Officer at Peshawar Corps.
Previously as Sindh DG Rangers, Major General Rizwan Akhtar had been assigned with the task to lead the Karachi operation. Akhtar is also considered to have extensive experience of counterinsurgency from a previous posting in the border region of South Waziristan. After getting promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General in September 2014, he was posted as Director General of Inter-Services Intelligence. Lately he was President National Defense University but recently took pre-mature retirement from service in October 2017.

Academic career

Rizwan Akhtar is a graduate of the Command and Staff College in Quetta, National Defense University, Islamabad and United States Army War College, Pennsylvania, USA. At the US Army War College, Akhtar authored a strategy research project report titled ‘US-Pakistan trust deficit and the war on terror’ in fulfillment of the requirements of the Master in Strategic Studies Degree.