World News | Pak to Finalise New Army Chief Name in Next Two Days: Minister Sanaullah

Islamabad, Nov 18 (PTI) Pakistan's interior minister Rana Sanaullah on Friday said that the name of the country's next Army chief would be decided in about two days.

In an interview to Geo News on its show Naya Pakistan, Sanaullah said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has completed the process and will bring it to paper in two days time.

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“I believe the prime minister has completed this process (of consultation about the army chief appointment) and will bring it to paper, today or tomorrow or the next two days,” he said.

He elaborated that consultation didn't mean giving some the right to dictate terms as it was the prerogative and right of the prime minister to appoint the army chief.

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Lately, this exercise in the nuclear-armed country has also attracted global attention due to the implications of the job performed by the head of the military.

The appointment of a successor to Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, who is set to retire on November 29, is an administrative matter.

Under the law, the incumbent prime minister is empowered to select any one of the top three-star generals. But politically it means installing someone who may pull the strings and even determine the fate of the person who appointed him.

The power of the Army chief flows not from the canon of any statute book but from the cannons of steel and fire; this power is historical and not constitutional. Still, it is a real hard power.

Sanaullah also said that any further delay in the appointment of the new army chief would not be appropriate.

He also urged Geo News anchorman Shehzad Iqbal to avoid further questioning on the issue as “this is a matter of a day or two” and more probes would lead to unnecessary speculation.

He also confirmed contacts with some leaders of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, including former defence minister Pervaz Khattak, former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and former information minister Fawad Chaudhry, and termed them as leaders with political sense.

He said that the aim of the PTI's march to Islamabad was the army chief's appointment, rather than snap elections.

“The long march is not really present anywhere — it's only on the media,” he claimed.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)