Lieutenant General Qamar Javed Bajwa will be new Pakistan army chief

On the other hand, General Zubair Mehmood Hayat has assumed charge as the Chairman of Joint Chiefs Staff Committee (CJCSC) today in a ceremony that was held in GHQ earlier in the day. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif also convened a high-level meeting to review the situation at the Line of Control, as Pakistan’s Air Chief of Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sohail Aman and Naval Chief Admiral Zakaullah joined in hitting out at India.

“To what extent General Bajwa will stay true to those convictions remains to be seen in a country where the military wields tremendous power and drives security and foreign policy”, Correspondent Salman Masood wrote from Islamabad. The outgoing army chief, 60-year-old General Sharif, has now become the first army chief to step down from the position timely, without seeking an extension, in over 20 years.

The COAS appointment is for three years, which can be extended. Bajwa is now serving as Inspector General of the Training and Evaluation. It is also not clear how he would approach sensitive issues such as military-civilian relations or his ideological stance towards India.

Above all, even if Bajwa does resolve to prioritize internal militancy over tensions with India in Kashmir and along the worldwide boundary, the Pakistani military has long internalized a culture of seeing India as the country’s primary threat and the organization’s very raison d’etre.

“The legacy of General Raheel Sharif would continue in the light of the examples he set”, Asif said.

But in many ways, the fact that Gen. Sharif was bowing out on time – and will pass his bamboo swagger stick to Bajwa in a formal military ceremony on Wednesday – mattered even more.

Cleary, Bajwa will have his plate full, from the tension with India and the violence in Afghanistan to growing links between homegrown armed groups and the implications of a Donald Trump presidency.

Since August, 184 people have been killed in three major attacks in the restive Baluchistan region alone. This could work both ways – escalation or reduction of tensions.

Pakistan’s relations with Kabul have also soured amid allegations from Afghan officials that Islamabad shelters the Taliban.

Pakistan’s newly appointed Army chief, Lt.

An army-led crackdown in Karachi also drastically reduced crime in the country’s biggest city. “These convictions of the army chief-designate must have leant heavily on the mind of PM Sharif as he made the crucial appointment”, The Nation wrote.

However, it is evident that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has prevailed.