Who will be the next army chief?

Who NEXT............. ??

The succession would take place upon the retirement of Gen Sharif at the end of November.

This will be the fifth time that PM Sharif — who already holds a record of sorts for being the prime minister who has appointed the most army chiefs — will pick the top commander of the country’s nearly 550,000 ground troops. If his botched attempt to replace Gen Musharraf with Ziauddin Butt in 1999 is also counted, this will be the sixth time PM Sharif gets to choose a chief of army staff.

Lt. Gen. Ishfaq Nadeem, who had been Chief of General Staff and was also Director General Military Operations. Presently, he is commanding Multan Corps. His retirement is due in August 2017.

Lt. Gen. Zubair Mehmood Hayat remained on important appointments like Corps Commander Bahawalpur and Director General Strategic Plans Division before assuming his present office. He was also Principal Staff Officer with former Army Chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani as a Brigadier. His retirement is due in January 2017.

Lt. Gen. Javed Iqbal is another prominent officer from 62nd Long Course, who is presently commanding Bahawalpur Corps and was previously president of National Defence University. His retirement is due in August 2017.

Lt. Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa is also among the runners who was previously Commander of important Rawalpindi Corps and is presently employed as Inspector General Training and Evaluation, at GHQ, a position General Raheel Sharif held before becoming the army chief. His retirement is due in August 2017.

However, it is the prerogative of the prime minister to appoint the Army Chief by promoting a three-star general to a four-star General.