PAKISTAN PARTY INVITES FORMER ARMY CHIEF RAHEEL SHARIF TO JOIN POLITICS
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s right–wing Jamaat-e- Islami party has invited former army chief Gen Raheel Sharif to join it after his retirement. Jamaat parliamentary member in the Punjab Assembly Waseem Akhtar on Thursday invited Sharif, who retired this week after a three-year tenure, to become a member. Akhtar asked Sharif to help the party change the face of politics the same way he “altered the fate of the nation” through the army’s Operation Zarb-e-Azb against terrorism, the Express Tribune reported. As a former government servant, Sharif will have to wait the mandatory two years before entering politics. Sharif succeeded by new Pakistan Army chief Gen Qamar Bajwa. PTI WASHINGTON: President-elect Donald Trump has named retired marine general James Mattis, a widely respected figure in US armed services who is also called the “Warrior Monk” and “Mad Dog Mattis”, as his secretary of defence.
And that leaves the presidentelect with only the berth of secretary of state, the remaining top cabinet position with international ramifications, to fill, having to choose from an increasingly contentious field of contenders let by Mitt Romney.
The president-elect on Thursday announced Mattis’s appointment in a typically Trumpian fashion, at a rally in Cincinnati, Ohio Indiana, the first of a string of stops together labelled the thank-you tour, to belabour the point, thank voters.
“We are going to appoint ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis as our secretary of defence,” Trump said, and added, leaning into the microphone with an expression that screamed he was enjoying himself, “But we’re not announcing it till Monday, so don’t tell anybody.”
Trump and Mattis agree on a lot of issues but disagree on some very crucial ones, including the use of torture and the Iran deal.
Mattis had no real competition, not the kind dogging the state department job, and Trump had given enough signals the general was going to be his choice, crediting him with changing his views on the use of torture as an interrogation tool. While the two of them may agree on a lot of issues, they disagree on some very crucial ones, such as, and including the use of torture, the Iran deal. While critical of it, the marine general doesn’t favor its cancellation as do most Republicans.
This is a crucial appointment for India, which would be following it closely for signs, one, of continuity, or the lack of it, with present defence secretary Ashton Carter, who has done more for ties with India than any of his predecessors yet.
Carter first led the dismantling of bureaucratic hurdles to trade with India in defence technology, including sensitive technology under the US-India Defense Technology and Trade Initiative as deputy to defence secretary Leon Panetta.
Then, as secretary of defense, Carter saw the US acknowledge India a “major defense partner” for the purpose of fast-tracking defense between the two countries and co-development and co-production of defense equipment. And, two, proximity to