Major reshuffle in Pakistan Army, Azhar Abbas appointed as Chief of General Staff, chances of becoming next Chief of Army Staff increased

Major reshuffle in Pakistan Army, Azhar Abbas appointed as Chief of General Staff, chances of becoming next Chief of Army Staff increased

In a major reshuffle in the Pakistan Army, Lieutenant General Azhar Abbas has been made the next Chief of General Staff. This post is considered the most important after the army chief. Earlier, Abbas was responsible for the security of the Line of Control (LoC) with India.

Lt Gen Abbas is from the Baloch Regiment and will succeed Lt Gen Sahir Shamshad Mirza who has been made the chief of 10 Corps based in Rawalpindi. Before Mirza, Abbas was heading 10 Corps. The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the Pakistan Army, gave this information in a statement issued on Tuesday.

It is known that Rawalpindi Corps guards the Line of Control. According to the news of Dawn News, the post of Chief of General Staff (CGS) is considered to be the most important in the Pakistan Army after the Army Chief. The CGS has to look after the intelligence and ‘operational’ functions in the ‘General Headquarters’ and the ‘Military Operations’ and ‘Military Intelligence’ Directorates work under him.

Who is Lt Gen Azhar Abbas?: General Abbas has previously served as the Commandant of Infantry School, Quetta, and has been the personal secretary of former Army Chief General Raheel Sharif. He also commanded a division at Muri and served in the Directorate of Operations as a brigadier.

At the same time, General Mirza is from the Sindh regiment. According to a report in The Express Tribune, he was appointed CGS in November 2019 but will now command a corps – something he has never done since being promoted to the three-star rank in 2018. He will be among the top three most senior generals in November 2022, when the extended tenure of Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa comes to an end. The report said that he is either seen as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee or as a potential candidate for the post of Chief of Army Staff.

According to the ISPR statement, Lt Gen Muhammad Chirag Haider has been made the head of Multan Corps, one of the main strike corps of Pakistan. He will replace Lt Gen Muhammad Wasim Ashraf, who has now been appointed as the Director General of Joint Staff Headquarters.

Transfers and postings are a routine affair, but are watched closely in Pakistan and around the world due to the military’s major role in the country’s international and domestic affairs.

Ashraf Ghani issued a statement: At the same time, Afghan leader Ashraf Ghani, who has been out of the country since the Taliban’s occupation, told that he left the country to maintain peace in his country and avert civil war, so that its Ordinary citizens should not bear the brunt. In a statement shared on Twitter on Wednesday, Ashraf Ghani said this while apologizing to the people of the country. Ashraf Ghani dismissed the allegations against him, which said that he fled abroad with a lot of money from his country.