Nation special report
ISLAMABAD: Two full Generals and nine Lt-Generals are due to retire this year. General Zubair Mahmood Hayat, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee and Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, Chief of Army Staff are retiring on Nov 29, 2019.
Whereas, five Lt-Generals will retiring in April 2019 while another four Lt-Generals will complete their service on Sept 23, 2019.
Lt-Gen. Omer Mahmood Hayat, Chairman, National Disaster Management Authority; Lt-Gen. Malik Zafar Iqbal, Director General Joint Staff (DG JS HQ Chaklala); Lt-Gen. Javed Mahmood Bukhari, Commander 31 Corps, Peshawar; Lt-Gen. Anwar Ali Hyder, Adjutant General, GHQ; Lt-Gen. Shahid Baig Mirza, Inspector General, Communications and IT, GHQ will retire on April 8, 2019
Meanwhile, Lt-Gen. Asim Saleem Bajwa, Commander, Southern Command, Quetta; Lt-Gen. Sadiq Ali, Chairman, Pakistan Ordnance Factors, Wah; Lt-Gen. Aamer Riaz, President, National Defence University, Islamabad; Lt-Gen. Sarfraz Sattar, Director General, Strategic Plans Division, Islamabad are due to retire on Sept 23, 2019.
At present, Pakistan Army is being led by two Generals, 30 Lt-Generals and 167 Major-Generals.
It may be recalled that last major reshuffle in Pak Army was made on 12th December last year (2018) and the Corps Commander and President of National Defence University, Islamabad were changed.
Lieutenant General Majid Ehsan was appointed Corps Commander Lahore. He previously held the position of vice chief of general staff at General Headquarters and the president of National Defence University, Islamabad.
Lieutenant General Amir Riaz was appointed President of National Defence University. He was previously serving as Corps Commander Lahore.
Lieutenant General Majid Ehsan, Hilal-e-Imtiaz (Military) was commissioned in a Distinguished Battalion of Punjab Regiment in 1986. The General Officer is a graduate of Command & Staff College Quetta, Command & Staff College, Cairo, Egypt and Armed Forces War Course from National Defence University, Islamabad.
His varied command, staff and instructional experience includes Platoon Commander at Pakistan Military Academy, General Staff Officer-II & General Staff Officer-I at Military Operations Directorate, Colonel General Staff & Brigade Commander in deployed Corps, Chief of Staff of a Corps & Southern Command, Commandant of School of Infantry & Tactics, General Officer Commanding of Infantry Division and Vice Chief of General Staff at General Headquarters. He was serving as President National Defence University, Islamabad before being appointed Corps Commander Lahore.
In another important development, Lt. Gen Asim Munir assumed the charge as Director General, Inter Services Intelligence (DG-ISI) on Tuesday (December 04). He left the command as Director General Military Intelligence (DG-MI) a day earlier on Monday (December 03). Lt General Sarfraz who was associated with Staff College is new DG-MI.
Lt Gen Asim Munir was supposed to take over charge on 25th November but delayed for certain professional reasons. Now, at the end of his new tenure in year 2022, he will qualify for the position of Army Chief.
Since Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa will retire on 29th November 2019, three generals will be in line to be the successor of him. They are including Corps Commander Lt. Gen Humayun Aziz, Multan Corps Commander Lt. Gen Nadeem Raza and Lt. Gen Qudwai.
After this period, Lt. Gen Asim Munir would be the senior most general and may take position of Army Chief after completing tenure as DG-ISI in year 2022.
Lt. Gen Asim has also served as the Military Intelligence (MI) director general, something that played a part in his latest appointment. Post of the ISI chief is considered to be the most powerful slot after that of the army chief.
Some other changes were also made with the appointment of Lt. Gen Asim on 10th October (last year) which were as follows:
Lt Gen Azhar Saleh Abbasi was appointed as chief of logistics staff at the General Headquarters (GHQ), Lt Gen Nadeem Zaki was appointed as corps commander Mangla, Lt Gen Shaheen Mazhar as corps commander Peshawar, Lt Gen Abdul Aziz as the GHQ military secretary, Lt Gen Muhammad Adnan as vice chief of general staff and Lt Gen Waseem Ashraf as inspector general arms.