Islamabad, March 11: Pakistan’s powerful Army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, whose term is due to end in October this year, might not get an extension in service, a close aide of President Asif Ali Zardari has indicated. There has been much speculation
about this recently, particularly after Gen. Kayani had recently granted extensions to two key members of his team — Inter-Services Intelligence chief Lt. Gen. Shuja Pasha and chief of general staff Lt. Gen. Mohammad Mustafa Khan. There have been some reports in the media claiming that Gen. Kayani had already been offered a two-year extension.
Ms Fauzia Wahab, central information secretary of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party and a close Zardari aide, said in Lahore: “No proposal for granting extension in service to the present Army chief is under consideration at the moment.” An extension for the ISI chief did not mean Gen. Kayani too would get one, she said.
She went on to add: “Whenever in the past extension in service has been granted to any Army chief, it has never gone in the interest of democracy and the country.”
On Wednesday, meanwhile, twenty-nine briga-diers were promoted to major-general, among them Brig. Agha Masood Akram,
former assistant military secretary to former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, and the military secretary to the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff committee.
Shafqat Ali
