Pakistan names new army commander

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25117640

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Pakistan has appointed Lt Gen Raheel Sharif as its new army head - one of the country's most powerful positions.

Lt Gen Sharif replaces Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, who retires on Thursday.

The government has also named Lt Gen Rashid Mahmood as the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee.

The two posts are seen as crucial in the battle against the Taliban and important because the army has always had a political role in Pakistan.

Correspondents say Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will have carefully considered his crucial appointment of Lt Gen Sharif - who is not related to him - because the prime minister has twice had run-ins with the military during previous terms in office.

In 1999 Mr Sharif was forced from office in a military take-over led by Gen Pervez Musharraf.

In 1993 army chief Abdul Waheed Kakar spearheaded efforts to get Mr Sharif to resign and hold elections of that year.

The BBC's Shahzeb Jillani in Islamabad says that the choice of Lt Gen Sharif could define the prime minister's third term in office.

Little is so far known about Gen Sharif , correspondents say, apart from the fact that his brother was one of the army's most decorated soldiers and was killed in the 1971 war with India.

The new army chief is expected to continue Gen Kayani's policies and to avoid overt interference in politics.

The decision came after weeks of intense speculation over the prime minister's likely choice. Lt Gen Sharif is thought to have been third on the seniority list.

He is not known as an ambitious general, our correspondent says.

Before his promotion, he headed the army's training and evaluation department and has previously served in senior roles as a corps commander and head of the country's premier training institution, the Military Academy in Abbottabad.