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The newly appointed army chief Gen Raheel Sharif.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan named a new army chief yesterday, promoting a veteran infantry commander to the most powerful position in the troubled nuclear-armed nation battling a homegrown Taliban insurgency.
General Raheel Sharif will take over as head of the 600,000-strong army from General Ashfaq Kayani, who is retiring after six years at the helm.
The change of command comes with the country facing a daunting array of challenges -- the six-year Taliban campaign which has claimed thousands of lives, vexed relations with India and the winding-down of the 12-year Nato mission in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Sharif, a veteran infantry commander whose elder brother won Pakistan’s highest military award for valour in the 1971 war with India, will formally take command today.
A message from the office of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif confirmed Gen Sharif had been made chief of the army staff and General Rashid Mehmood had been made chairman of the joint chiefs of staff committee.
The prime minister’s statement also named Khwaja Asif, the minister for water and power, as the new defence minister. The post had been vacant since the May general election.
Departing commander Kayani has served as army chief since 2007 and has been given much credit for resisting the temptation to meddle overtly in politics.
When he confirmed his retirement last month he stressed that the armed forces “fully support and want to strengthen” democracy.
Prime Minister Sharif will be hoping to avoid a repeat of events the last time he named an army chief -- General Pervez Musharraf overthrew him in a coup in 1999.
AFP
