No former spy chief has faced court martial in a country the powerful army has directly ruled for nearly three decades.

Islamabad, Pakistan – A former chief of Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency faces court martial following his arrest for alleged misconduct in a case related to a private housing scheme.

In a brief statement on Monday, the Pakistani military said it had arrested retired Lieutenant-General Faiz Hameed, the former head of the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, to “ascertain the correctness” of complaints in a property case and “appropriate disciplinary action” was initiated against him.

The statement said there were “multiple instances of violation” of the Army Act by Hameed after his retirement in December 2022. “The process of Field General Court Martial has been initiated, and Lt Gen Faiz Hameed (Retd) has been taken into military custody,” it added.

The military said it acted against the top officer in accordance with the orders of the Supreme Court, which last year called for an investigation against Hameed after a land development company called Top City filed a petition, alleging Hameed had acquired ownership of some properties along with his brother and had even blackmailed the company’s owner.

In its petition, Top City, which was developing land near the capital, Islamabad, for a private housing project, alleged Hameed was involved in land grab and corruption linked to the housing project, media reports said. The company also accused the former ISI chief of abusing his authority and orchestrating raids at the home and the offices of its owner.

The military is considered the most influential institution in Pakistan and has directly ruled the country for close to 30 years of its nearly eight-decade history.

Despite its oversized presence and allegations of political interference, which violate their oath, no former spy chief has faced court martial before Hameed.

Ayesha Siddiqa, a senior fellow at London’s King’s College and author of a book on the Pakistan military’s “business empire”, told Al Jazeera Hameed’s arrest was akin to “a political nuclear detonation”.

“This step seems to be aimed at restoring discipline within the army and the ISI. Previous cases of court martial of senior officers were on charges of spying. This is different, as we are seeing, for the first time, a former ISI chief accused of harming the country,” she said.

Hameed is considered close to jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who had appointed him to lead the ISI in 2019. Khan replaced him with Lieutenant-General Nadeem Anjum in October 2021, months before the cricketer-turned-politician lost power in April 2022.

Hameed, who was once tipped to become the army chief, took an early retirement in December 2022, days after the current chief, General Asim Munir, took charge. Pakistan’s Army Act prohibits a retired military official from engaging in political activities for two years after retirement.

Kamran Bokhari, senior director at the Washington, DC-based New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, told Al Jazeera the decision to arrest Hameed was significant because he was, until recently, a “very powerful intel czar”.

“The former ISI chief’s actions must have been threatening to the current army chief Munir, as well as the institution, for the top brass to engage in such a drastic step,” Bokhari said.

“Though designed to manage the unprecedented crisis in civil-military relations, this development risks exacerbating political, economic, and security conditions within the country,” he added.