Ziauddin Butt Ziauddin Khawaja , also known as Ziauddin Butt , is a four - star general of the Pakistan Army and a career operations and infantry formations commander , head of intelligence and engineering officer . Ziauddin has served as Director - General of Pakistan ' s premier intelligence agency ISI . He was nominated for the post of Pakistan Army chief on 12 Oct 1999 by then - Prime minister Nawaz Sharif after the dismissal of General Pervez Musharraf , who had begun a coup against the government . The coup went ahead regardless of this appointment as Ziauddin told his supporters not to resist the move as it would cause dangerous in - fighting among the army . Both Sharif and Ziauddin were arrested by the coup - makers and taken to different locations . Ziauddin was kept in solitary confinement for two years , and was subject to three army investigations which aimed to find some element of wrongdoing on his part . Musharraf decided to use a ' scouts penalty ' – a discretionary punishment not requiring a crime , to dismiss General Ziauddin from service . He revealed in October 2011 that according to his knowledge the then former Director - General of Intelligence Bureau of Pakistan ( 2004 – 2008 ) , Brigadier Ijaz Shah , had kept Osama bin Laden in an Intelligence Bureau safe house in Abbottabad . Army career . Ziauddin is a nephew of Ghulam Jilani Khan . he was commissioned in Pakistan Army in the Pakistan Army Corps of Engineers , a technical combat arm in October 1964 in the 30th PMA Long Course . Ziauddin received his B . Eng . in civil engineering in 1968 . He has commanded Infantry Brigade , Infantry Division and Corps . Ziauddin was Pakistan ' s first head of the Strategic Planning Division ( SPD ) and oversaw Pakistan ' s nuclear arsenal . Ziauddin was promoted to Lieutenant - General on 25 February 1996 and made the Corps Commander of 30 Corps at Gujranwala by General Jehangir Karamat , who was then COAS . After serving as the Corps Commander , Ziauddin was posted as the Adjutant General ( AG ) of the army , a Principal Staff Officer ( PSO ) position where he was serving at the time of the promotion of General Musharraf to the Army chief in October 1998 . When Lieutenant Generals Ali Kuli Khan Khattak and Khalid Nawaz were superseded by Musharraf , Ziauddin moved to second slot in the seniority list of the army , second only to Musharraf himself . He was subsequently assigned to head the Inter - Services Intelligence ( ISI ) by Prime minister Nawaz Sharif , after replacing Lieutenant - general Naseem Rana who was posted as Master - General Ordnance . ( MGO ) . He was also one of the senior most generals ever to occupy the post of Intelligence Chief ( DG ISI ) and is credited with major revamping and evolution of the agency and its operations . He is currently serving as the elected Chairman of the LGH Post Graduate Medical Institute . Kamran Khan of " The News " wrote disparagingly about Ziauddin in a news column called " the news / national intelligence unit ( NIU ) " . Ziauddin broke silence after 11 years and categorically challenged Kamran Khan ' s version of the events in a television interview to the GEO news channel . General Rashid Queraishi was quoted as saying " General Ziauddin was one of the best generals in our army ' s history , so now we have to change the history " . Noted author Shuja Nawaz ( brother of former Pakistan army chief Asif Nawaz ) wrote in his prize winning book that Musharraf intentionally created the impression that Ziauddin and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had family connections when in reality there was no such truth .