Opinion
The next COAS
Dr Farrukh Saleem
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Capital suggestion
The race is on. The two slots to be filed are: the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) and the chief of army staff (COAS). Here’s the seniority list: Lieutenant Generals Haroon Aslam (PA16837), Rashad Mahmood (PA16871), Raheel Sharif (PA17408), Tariq Khan (PA17625), Zaheerul Islam (PA17636), Salim Nawaz (PA17642) and Khalid Rabbani (PA17831). They are all professionally competent, technically proficient with proven command abilities to lead the 6th largest military force on the face of the planet. Apparently, Admiral Sandila is still in the race for CJCSC.
Seniority be damned. Merit as meaningless as a particle of sand along the Arabian Sea’s shoreline. The lone criterion is loyalty – as lonely as a cloud over the Gobi Desert. PM Nawaz Sharif picked Lt General Musharraf who was 5th in the seniority list. PM Nawaz Sharif also picked Lt General Ziauddin Butt (PA6989) from the Army Corps of Engineers. General Ziaul Haq was 7th on the seniority list (but the highest on the perceived loyalty list).
The race is on. The three forces that would interact and then come up with the new name are: the institutional recommendation of the Pakistan Army, a ‘perceived loyalty test’ by the PM and a ‘war-on-terror capacity perception test’ by the Pentagon.
The institutional recommendation of Pak Army is clear – Lt General Rashad Mahmood, the current chief of general staff (CGS). The CGS heads the general staff branch of army General Headquarters and the all-important directorates of Military Operations and Military Intelligence. Lt General Rashad Mahmood belongs to the Baloch Regiment (General Kayani is also from the Baloch Regiment) and has served as military secretary (MS) to President Tarrar and corps commander Lahore. For the record, Generals Yahya Khan, Aslam Beg, Asif Nawaz and Jahangir Karamat were all promoted from CGS to COAS. Generals Shamim Alam, Aziz Khan, Tariq Majid and Khalid Shameem Wynne were all promoted from CGS to CJCSC.
A ‘perceived loyalty test’ by the PM – and his team that allegedly comprises CM Shahbaz Sharif and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar – may indeed be an ongoing process till the finalisation of a particular name. If PA17408 (3rd on the seniority) or PA 17625 (4th on the seniority) is picked to fill CJCSC then that would knock off two or three senior generals in effect making 4th or 5th general on the seniority list as the senior-most for COAS. This loyalty test would apparently continue to interact with the other two forces (namely the institutional recommendation of Pak Army and a ‘war-on-terror capacity perception test’ by the Pentagon).
The Pentagon’s ‘war-on-terror capacity perception test’ is as important as food is to a balanced diet. Lt General Tariq Khan has commanded the 14th Infantry Division in South Waziristan and led the Frontier Corps to victory in the Battle of Bajaur. He has been Pakistan’s senior representative at Centcom and in 2007 he received the United States Legion of Merit. Pentagon’s influence should not be underestimated. After all, Lt General (Retd) Khaled Kidwai is in his 13th year as the DG of the Strategic Plans Division (SPD).
Seniority be damned. Merit a mere slogan as empty as Satan’s heart.
The writer is a columnist based in Islamabad. Email:
farrukh15@hotmail.com
Twitter: @saleemfarrukh
with indian they cry about my flags =)) those idiots
They Gave Zero and we cant talk about zeros not fair 
