Five three-star generals, including spymaster Lt Gen Naveed Mukhtar, are due to retire today, informed sources told Dawn on Saturday.

Besides director general of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt Gen Mukhtar, the others retiring today are Peshawar Corps Commander Lt Gen Nazir Ahmad Butt, Commander of Army's Strategic Forces Command (ASFC) Lt Gen Mian Mohammad Hilal Hussain, Military Secretary at the General Headquarters (GHQ) Lt Gen Ghayur Mehmood and Inspector General of Training and Evaluation, GHQ, Lt Gen Hidayatur Rehman.

Commissioned in the armoured corps regiment in 1983, Lt Gen Mukhtar is a graduate of the Command and Staff College, Quetta; National Defence University, Islamabad; and the United States Army War College.

He had commanded a mechanised division and served as director general of Rangers before being promoted to the rank of lieutenant general and posted as corps commander of Karachi in September 2014.

He served there till December 7, 2016 before being posted to Islamabad to head the country's premier intelligence agency. He assumed the office of ISI director general on December 11, 2016.

Commissioned in Frontier Force regiment in 1983, Lt Gen Nazir Ahmed Butt is a graduate of the Command and Staff Collage, Quetta, and the NDU, Islamabad. He also served as military secretary to the prime minister and Pakistan defence attaché in the US.

He had served as commandant of the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA), Kakul, and commanded an infantry division in the Federally Administered Tribal Agencies before being appointed corps commander of Peshawar in December 2016, replacing Lt Gen Hidayat-ur-Rehman who is currently serving as IG (Training and Evaluation) at the GHQ.