Lieutenant General Rizwan Akhtar HS  HI(M) (Urdu: رضوان اختر) is a former three-star rank Pakistan Army general. He is a former spymaster who served as Director General of the ISI.^[3] He served from 8 November 2014 to 11 December 2016. On 8 Oct 2017, he announced his pre-mature retirement from the army.^[1]

Quick Facts President of the National Defence University, 21st Director General of the ISI ...

Lieutenant General Rizwan Akhtar HS  HI(M)
رضوان اختر
President of the National Defence University
In office 11 December 2016[1] – 9 October 2017
21st Director General of the ISI
In office 7 November 2014 – 11 December 2016
President	Mamnoon Hussain
Prime Minister	Nawaz Sharif
Preceded by	Zaheer-ul-Islam
Succeeded by	Naveed Mukhtar
Director General Rangers (Sindh)
Nickname	Spy Master
Military service
Allegiance	Pakistan
Branch/service	Pakistan Army
Years of service	1982 - 2017[2]
Rank	Lieutenant-General
Unit	Frontier Force Regiment
Commands	President National Defence University DG ISI DG Rangers (Sindh)
Awards	Hilal-e-Shujaat Hilal-e-Imtiaz (Military)

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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 (FATA) after serving as Operation and Planning Officer at Peshawar Corps.

As Director General of the Pakistan Rangers in Sindh, 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 the ISI. He was the President of the National Defence University but took pre-mature retirement from the army in October 2017.^[1][3]

Rizwan Akhtar is a graduate of the Command and Staff College in Quetta, National Defense University, Islamabad (NDU) 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.^[4]