No consultation over army chief’s appointment: Asif

ISLAMABAD: Reacting to former Pakistan Tehreeke-insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s onslaught, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has debunked his claim of consultation with Pakistan Muslim League-nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif over the army chief’s appointment, reiterating that the decision was strictly Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s prerogative.

“Consultations have not yet taken place on the army chief’s appointment. These are just newspaper reports,” Asif told reporters.

He clarified that the name of the new army chief had not been decided yet.

“The prime minister has discretion regarding the army chief’s appointment. Therefore, the prime minister will make a decision on the appointment.”

Meanwhile, a report said that the army chief is now expected to be controversy-free as the PTI seems to have decided not to make the upcoming military chief controversial, whereas Nawaz Sharif has too learnt the lesson of compromising seniority for the sake of a “loyal” army chief.

Nawaz Sharif and other PML-N leaders have now realised through their own experiences and what history shows that no mater who is selected as army chief, expecting loyalty from him is flawed.

It is admited now that ignoring seniority for political reasons has hardly worked in the past

for any chief executive, including Nawaz Sharif.

“The chief always belongs to the army,” a PML-N said, adding that Nawaz Sharif has given his mind to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif during their recent meetings in London, where the premier had rushed for some pressing reasons.

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif and Prime Minister’s Special Assistant Malik Ahmad Khan were specially invited to atend the London deliberations because of their recent “important meetings” that they had atended in Pakistan.

Asif and Khan had something important to share with Nawaz Sharif.

This time the PML-N’S Prime Minister Shehbaz

Sharif will place more emphasis on seniority in the appointment of a new army chief.

Senior officers will have a beter chance of geting the top two four-star military positions: Army Chief of Staff and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Commitee.

The process of initiating these appointments will likely start ater the 18th of this month.

Still, even if the government decides to make these appointments in the next few days, the seniority-cumulative fitness rule would not affect the “decision” of the PML-N.

Before these appointments are announced, the PMLN will not like to discuss the issue in public.