Pakistan’s ISI chief appointed as NSA amid growing tension with India

The Pakistan government has appointed spy chief Lt Gen Muhammad Asim Malik as the new National Security Adviser (NSA) amid growing tension with India.

Malik, who was appointed as the director general of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in October 2024, also takes on the role as NSA, which comes after the Pahalgam terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir that left 26 people dead.

He is the country’s tenth NSA, but it is for the first time that a serving ISI chief has been tasked with both positions at once.

The NSA position had remained vacant since April 2022, when the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government was ousted.