In 1989, his military commission was discharged when he was implicated in the Operation Midnight Jackal political scandal in trying to sabotage then-Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's administration.

[15] In 1979, he became aware of a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) 'mole' working as an engineer, who was trying to seek security details on the commercial nuclear power plant for sabotage purposes.

: 119–122 [18] In 1981, he began investigating the militant Al-Zulfiqar group, after the 1981 Pakistan International Airlines hijacking, eventually expanding their spying on the leaders of the MRD led by Benazir Bhutto in 1982–85.

[17] From 1983 to 1988, he also monitored the anti-communist judicial probe that implicated the journalists Jam Saqi and Sohail Sangi, and harboured doubts of foreign funding of the MRD alliance led by Benazir Bhutto.

[17] In 1986–87, Col. Ahmed was appointed as the Director-General of the Intelligence Bureau before being posted to take over the directorship of the JCIB in Islamabad when Lieutenant-General (Lt-Gen.) Akhtar Abdur Rahman became DG ISI: contents [20] In 1988, Brig.

Imtiaz, in a secret conversation with Major Amir Khan, talked on sponsoring the Members of Parliament (MPs) belonging to the PPP to bring about a vote of no-confidence movement to remove Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in order to bring the Pakistan Muslim League (N) (PML(N)), led by its then-President Fida Mohammad Khan and his chief secretary Nawaz Sharif, into the administration.

: contents [23]: 146 [24] The plan backfired when the conversation was apparently videotaped by the IB and ISI, and was released to the public, which eventually led to General Mirza Aslam Beg, then-Army Chief, to allow Military Intelligence (MI) to conduct the inquiry in such manner.

: 38–39 [4] In October 1997, Ahmed took over the chairmanship of Network Television Marketing, appointed by its board of directors amid controversy when NTM's chairman Faisal Sher Jan was fired from the channel.

[31]: 38 [4] He chaired the channel until 1999.: 40 [4] The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) secured the plurality after the 1993 Pakistani general election, and Prime Minister Bhutto opened the investigation and inquiry when authorizing the arrest warrants of Imtiaz Ahmed on charges of indulging in illegal activities in 1994.: 159–160 [32] The case against him was marked on the political motives, and he was later released due to lack of evidences.

: 159–160 [32]: 9–10 [33] After the 1999 Pakistani coup d'état by General Pervez Musharraf, the inquiries led by NAB indicted Ahmed on large-scale corruption and misappropriation of funds while serving as the Director of IB, eventually finding him guilty in 2001.