ISLAMABAD – Prime Minister’s Office has received a summary for the appointment of two top positions in Pakistan Army, Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif confirmed on Wednesday.
The process of appointment of the new Chief of Army Staff (COAS) and Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) has been started as General Qamar Javed Bajwa, who has been serving as the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) since 2016 and received an extension in service in 2019, is all set to retire on November 29.
Taking to Twitter, Asif wrote: “The Prime Minister Office has received the summary from the Ministry of Defence”.
سمری وزارت دفاع سے وزیراعظم آفس میں موصول ھو گئ. انشاءاللہ باقی مراحل بھی جلد طے ھو جائیں گے..
— Khawaja M. Asif (@KhawajaMAsif) November 22, 2022
The defence minister’s tweet comes almost an hour after the military’s media wing confirmed on Tuesday night that it had forwarded the summary to the ministry.
“GHQ has forwarded the summary for selection of CJCSC and COAS, containing names of six senior most lieutenant general gens to Ministry of Defence,” tweeted director general of ISPR Lieutenant General Babar Iftikhar.
GHQ has forwarded the summary for Selection of CJCSC and COAS, containing names of 6 senior most Lt Gens to MoD.
— DG ISPR (@OfficialDGISPR) November 22, 2022
Though an official list of the recommended names is yet to be disclosed, the main contenders for the posts are Lieutenants-Generals Asim Munir, the army’s quartermaster general, Shair Shamshad Mirza, the Corps Commander Rawalpindi, Azhar Abbas, the chief of general staff, Nauman Mahmood, president of the National Defense University, Faiz Hameed, the former chief of Pakistan’s premier Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency and currently serving as the commander of the army’s Bahawalpur Corps, and Mohammad Amir, the commander the XXX Corps in Gujranwala.
On Tuesday, Khawaja Asif assured that the much-anticipated appointment of the next army chief will be made in 48 hours.
He also rejected rumours about civil-military tension over the matter related to appointment of new army chief.
