Islamabad August 16, : It’s almost an hour for the Pakistan government to decide on one of the most difficult decisions of its time the choice of who will be the next commander of the country’s Army as reported by the media.An influential Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader suggested in discussions with the media that the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif might begin discussions about the appointment before the end of August, and then decide by the middle of September, Dawn news reported.
In the current batch Lieutenant-Gen Sahir Shamshad Mirza is the senior-most among the four candidates to the same batch.
A source from the military, discussing his profile claimed he was the most likely candidate for one of the two positions of COAS as well as CJCSC, Dawn reported.
He comes from the Sindh Regiment; the same parent unit as the incoming CJCSC Gen Nadeem Raza.Lieutenant-General Mirza has had a remarkable track record in the Army especially in the senior leadership positions of the last seven years.
He became famous as director-general of military operations (DGMO) in the last two years of Gen Raheel Sharif’s tenure.In that position, he was part of Gen Raheel Sharif’s team in the General Headquarters (GHQ), which was in charge of the military operation against Tehreek-i Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other militants in North Waziristan.
The custom is that the GHQ sends the list of the 4 to 5 most senior lieutenant-generals together with their personnel files to the Ministry of Defence, which forwards them to premier minister, who chooses the officer he thinks is best suited for the position.
Out of the 10 Army chiefs the country had since 1972 Five were chosen by the incumbent’s older brother, Nawaz Sharif in different terms as the Prime Minister.
The older Sharif was frequently criticized for his decision to appoint officers he believed to be an “apna banda” (his man).However the fact is that no of the appointments worked very well for him.
The experience has apparently caused the Sharifs with the conviction that they’ll never achieve their goal.Certain PML-N leaders have said in that they have so, in a way, taken the decision that instead of giving into the temptation of selecting an ideal candidate they will make the decision based on experience only, Dawn reported.
“Then regardless of how things go we’ll at the very least be happy that no personal decisions were at stake,” one party leader declared.
Another section of the party thinks that Shehbaz Sharif might comply with the advice of the current chief.
Chief of Armed Staff (COAS) Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa has been scheduled to step down in the final week of November.The appointment of the army chief was supposed to last for three years, however Gen Bajwa was granted an extra three-year period in 2019 following some sort of controversy in the political arena.
The previous Premier Imran Khan had given him an extension in August However, the Supreme Court later demanded legislation regarding the renewal of the chiefs of the services, Dawn reported.
Parliament was in compliance in January 2020 and allowed the Premier Minister to extend the term of service chiefs at the Prime Minister’s discretion.
The law had been able to fix 64 as the minimum age at which a chief of services is required to retire.
Gen Bajwa, still 61 and 61, is therefore eligible for a second term.
This has been a source of speculation that the incumbent could be looking for or interested in an extension.According to a source within the military Gen Bajwa has informed the people close to his that he will retire in November.
Inter-Services Public Relations, too confirmed that the chief is indeed retiring.
The chief of the army isn’t the only four-star post that will be empty in November.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) Gen Nadeem Raza will also retire at the same time.
It is interesting to note that the four of the six lieutenant generals who were the most senior during the time of General Bajwa’s retirement come part of the same batch.
When the choice to nominate the new CJCSC as well as COAS is taken, Lieutenant-General Asim Munir is the highest-ranking among the candidates.Even though he was elevated to the rank of two-star general in September of 2018, he took charge two months later.
In the end, his four-year term as Lieutenant-General will expire on November 27, roughly the same time that the current CJCSC as well as the COAS will be taking off their army uniforms.Since the decisions and recommendations regarding the appointment of the two generals with four stars are expected to be made earlier, it will be up to Gen Bajwa to decide if his name will be included, and the prime minister to make the final decision.
Lieutenant-General Azhar Abbas is the most experienced in Indian issues of the current top brass.At present, he is the chief of general staff (CGS) and is in charge of the army with the direct supervision of both intelligence and operations directorates in GHQ, Dawn reported.
Prior to that, he commanded the Rawalpindi-based but Kashmir-centric and politically-significant X Corps, which indicates that he enjoys the complete trust of the present army chief.The time during his tenure as the commander of X Corps that the Indian and Pakistani armies came to an agreement regarding the 2003 ceasefire accord along the LOC and it was Lieutenant-General Abbas’s responsibility to ensure that the agreement was followed to the agreement.
As a member of the Baloch Regiment, Lt-Gen Nauman Mehmood is currently the president of the National Defence University.He also holds a long-standing position as the chief instructor at the Command and Staff College, Quetta.
He has been the commander of an infantry division that was based in North Waziristan.In the same location, he was posted as director-general (Analysis) at the ISI which plays a vital role in analysis of foreign policy from a national security point of view.
The post gave him with the possibility of communicating with foreign intelligence organizations on behalf of the ISI, Dawn reported.
Lt-Gen Faiz Hamid, too, is a member of the Baloch Regiment and is one of the most talked about candidates among the contenders for the top job.Gen Bajwa and Lt-Gen Hamid have been known to each other for a long time.As brigadier Lt-Gen Hamid was the chief of staff of the X Corps under Gen Bajwa who was the commander of the corps.
In the final phase of his time as the director of the ISI, he became focus of a dispute between Imran Khan and COAS because the latter had made the decision to assign him as the commander of the Peshawar Corps, and the former was unwilling to remove him.He was then sent to Peshawar and there he worked for less than one year prior to being transferred into the Bahawalpur Corps.
Some political analysts believe it could be difficult for, if not impossible for the PML-N leadership think about him for the position of COAS in the future.COAS because of the widely-publicized nature of his job as ISI chief during the previous administration, Dawn reported.
Lieutenant-General Mohammad Amir belongs to the Artillery Regiment and is, at present, the commander of the XXX Corps in Gujranwala.He is regarded as a close friend of Gen Bajwa.
In the past, he was adjutant-general at the GHQ.As a major-general he was in charge of the 10 Infantry Division stationed in Lahore from 2017 to.He was also the Director-General Staff Duties in the COAS Secretariat, giving him an extensive amount of expertise in both command and GHQ posts.In the past, he was military secretary to the then president Asif Zardari in 2011-13.
His professional path has put him in intimate contact with the decision-makers in politics of the present, Dawn reported.
san/
