Hail the new four-stars

Pakistan’s appointment of army chiefs is a saga of errors and consequent disasters, with only some exceptions. The blame for this rests squarely on politicians. Having been the appointee of several four-star generals like General Shamim Alam, General Asif Nawaz, General Waheed Kakar, General Pervez Musharraf and myself, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is more than qualified to select future four-star generals in consultation with his cabinet. The wisest action this time has been the concurrent appointment of the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) and the Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC). I have known army chiefs who resisted the appointment of the CJCSC after they had been appointed to head the army, with the slot of the CJCSC being kept vacant to be filled in later. General (retd) Mirza Aslam Beg tolerated Admiral (retd) Iftikhar Ahmed Sirohey but when it came to replacing him with Lt General (retd) Alam Jan Mahsud by then prime minister Benazir Bhutto, he put his foot down. Later, when General Shamim Alam retired, General Waheed Kakar did not approve the idea of appointing Lt General Farrukh Khan as the CJCSC and settled for the more docile Air Chief Marshal Farooq Feroze Khan during the Benazir government.

After General Kakar retired, Ms Bhutto appointed General Jehangir Karamat as army chief. By the time Air Chief Marshal Farooq had retired, PM Nawaz Sharif was in power again and wanted Lt General Iftikhar Ali Khan, who was also Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan’s brother, to be appointed to the CJCSC post. General Karamat, however, did not acquiesce to this and maintained that he could perform both jobs easily. That was the beginning of the disconnect between General Karamat and Prime Minister Sharif, which culminated in the former’s ouster. The mistake was repeated with the appointment of General Musharraf as army chief, with the CJCSC slot not being filled concurrently. Once ensconced in the army chief slot, General Musharraf did not allow the promotion of another four-star general to fill the vacant CJCSC position. In order to placate his mood swings, he was offered the position of acting CJCSC by the Nawaz government. The absence of a permanent CJCSC was acutely felt during the Kargil operation when General Musharraf took the entire Pakistan Army, the PAF and the Pakistan Navy for a ride. If we look at history, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Ziaul Haq and Musharraf himself did not commit the same mistake, as all three appointed separate CJCSCs when in power. Here it should be noted that dictators went a step further and promoted additional four-star generals as vice-chief of army staff, which ensured a balance of power.

This time, the government has taken a wise step of filling both the appointments concurrently. Both General Rashad Mahmood and General Raheel Sharif are outstanding officers of the Pakistan Army with brilliant records of service. General Rashad is one course senior, which renders him ably suited to take over as CJCSC. The CJCSC presides over operational meetings and his being senior to the army chief is desirable although not necessary. The person appointed to this position commands strategic forces and for this reason, this appointment should stay with the army instead of with the PAF or the Pakistan Navy. The government can ponder over more four-star appointments for the Southern Command, Central Command or even for the post of the DG ISI. The Pakistan Army is the sixth-largest army in the world and the creation of more four-star appointments will be very much in order.

The selections of these two generals have been on merit but that does not mean that the others in line were not suited to these positions. The entire panel consisted of outstanding general officers, who were exceptionally groomed and battle-hardened. I wish we could retain them by expanding the scope of promotions.

Tailpiece: General Raheel Sharif is neither related to Nawaz Sharif nor is he a Kashmiri.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 29^th, 2013.

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