Pakistan appoints Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa as new Chief of Army Staff

Pakistan has appointed Lt Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa as the new Chief of Army Staff to replace General Raheel Sharif.

DawnNews reported on Sunday that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has finalized the selection of Lt Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa as the Chief of Army Staff and Lt Gen Zubair Hayat as Chairman Joint Chief of Staff Committee.

Bajwa is currently serving at the GHQ as Inspector General of Training and Evaluation — the position Gen Sharif held before becoming army chief — he has commanded the 10 Corps, the army’s largest, which is responsible for the area along the Line of Control (LoC).

Both general would take up their new posts from Tuesday, the day the current army chief Raheel Sharif retires.

On Friday, Sharif called the Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah for farewell discussion.

“Pakistan Chief of Army Staff Raheel Sharif made a phone call to Chief Executive Abdullah as a farewell discussion last night,” the Office of the Chief Executive said in a Twitter post.

No further details were given regarding the discussions between the two sides.

Gen. Sharif is expected to pass on the baton of command of the army to the next army chief at a ceremony by the end of this month.

Gen. Sharif would be the first army chief to retire on time in two decades. His predecessors Gen Kayani and Gen Pervez Musharraf got extensions, while Gen Jehangir Karamat was sent home prematurely.