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Pakistan Names New Army Chief Pakistan Names New Army Chief
(about 3 hours later)
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — In a surprise move, Lt. Gen. Raheel Sharif was appointed chief of the Pakistani Army on Wednesday, ending months of speculation about who would succeed Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who will retire on Friday. ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — In the most crucial appointment of his new term, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday chose a relative outsider, Lt. Gen. Raheel Sharif, to lead Pakistan’s powerful army.
Of the three main contenders for the post — the most powerful military position in the country — General Sharif was the least senior in terms of service. The second most senior of the candidates, Lt. Gen. Rashad Mahmood, was appointed chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, according to a statement from Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s office. Lt. Gen. Haroon Aslam, the most senior candidate, was bypassed. With the choice, the prime minister seemed to be skirting the line of confrontation with a military establishment that ousted him in 1999 but did not overtly cross it.
According to Pakistan’s constitution, the prime minister appoints the head of the military services. Choosing the army chief had been considered one of the most important and delicate decisions facing Mr. Sharif. The military has ruled Pakistan for most of the country’s history; during Mr. Sharif’s previous tenure, his handpicked army chief, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, toppled the government in 1999. General Sharif, who is not related to the prime minister, was the third in line for the post by seniority and comes from a noted military family, keeping with Nawaz Sharif’s promise to take experience and tradition into account for the appointment. But in other ways the prime minister seemed to be flexing his independence from a military command that until recent years had run roughshod over civilian governments.
Before his appointment, General Sharif served as the Pakistani Army’s inspector general of evaluation and training. He is the brother of a decorated war hero, Shabbir Sharif, who was killed in the 1971 war with India. Notably, General Sharif was not the favored candidate of his predecessor, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, a power player who is resigning this week after a tumultuous six-year stint at the top of the military. General Sharif had not held any clear first-tier commands, nor had he served in the influential Military Operations Directorate or come up through an intelligence background — all points on General Kayani’s resume.
Pakistani analysts said General Sharif’s family background and professional record were the main reasons for his selection. His family has had close ties with the prime minister’s family, though they are not directly related, because both are from the eastern city of Lahore and have Kashmiri origins. Instead, Mr. Sharif shunted General Kayani’s favorite, Lt. Gen. Rashad Mahmood, into the position of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — a nominally more powerful job that in reality is subordinate to the army chief.
“He comes from a family that has given sacrifices and has been more interested in profession and less in politics,” said Talat Masood, a retired lieutenant general and a respected defense and political analyst. “No doubt the Sharifs think he is more pliable and not as close to Kayani, Rashad,” said a senior American defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
“Sharif is soldierly and professionally very sound,” Mr. Masood said. “And, because of his background, the prime minister seemed to have greater confidence in him.” Like the prime minister, General Sharif comes from the eastern city of Lahore, which is the heartland of military influence in Pakistan. He comes from a family that is “more interested in the profession and less in politics,” said Talat Masood, a retired lieutenant general and a respected defense analyst. “Sharif is soldierly and professionally very sound. And, because of his background, the prime minister seemed to have greater confidence in him.”
General Sharif’s appointment caused some surprise, because the prime minister bypassed two more senior generals. (The two men will be promoted to four-star generals.) Accordingly, some Pakistani analysts saw the choice as evidence that Prime Minister Sharif was looking for someone slightly more biddable. But that kind of gamesmanship has come back to bite him before. During Mr. Sharif’s previous stint in power in the late 1990s, he passed over more senior generals to choose Gen. Pervez Musharraf as army chief — the man who would later depose and replace him in the 1999 coup.
The new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, General Mahmood, was rumored to be the preferred choice of General Kayani. In an institution where legacy and heritage are prized, General Shareef, a 57-year-old infantry officer, does hold many credentials looked for in the army commander post.
General Sharif has a vastly different personality to the other two contenders, Mr. Masood said. “Kayani was far more discreet and kept things to himself. He was certainly not an extrovert.” His brother, Shabbir Sharif, is a decorated war hero who died in Pakistan’s 1971 war against India — a connection that many Pakistani news outlets prominently noted in their profiles of General Sharif.
General Kayani was credited with keeping the military out of politics but got mixed reviews of his performance against the Taliban insurgency. He led a successful military operation against the Taliban in the Swat Valley of northwestern Pakistan and less decisive campaigns in South Waziristan and other parts of the tribal belt. Until now, he was in charge of the army’s training program, implementing changes ordered by General Kayani to improve the army’s counterinsurgency capabilities as it faces a growing threat from Islamist insurgents based in the tribal belt, particularly the Pakistani Taliban.
But during his tenure there was also an alarming surge in Taliban violence across the rest of the country, including a 2009 assault on the military’s heavily fortified general headquarters in Rawalpindi that embarrassed the senior leadership. General Sharif inherits an army that, though it is still Pakistan’s most powerful institution, has seen its once-unassailable authority somewhat eroded in recent years.
General Sharif will have to face the challenge of the Taliban insurgency. His relationship with Washington will also be crucial as United States-led forces begin withdrawing from neighboring Afghanistan in 2014. The continuing onslaught of attacks from the Pakistani Taliban in recent years has become such a clear challenge that the country’s leaders, including General Kayani, have recently sought to open peace talks with the group rather than calling for a new military offensive. And a series of diplomatic and intelligence crises involving the United States, as well as changes in society like a more assertive media and judiciary, have brought questions about the military’s role that would have been unthinkable a generation ago.
The army is still revered by most Pakistanis, however. And under General Kayani, the military gained a new point of respect: despite years of turmoil and conflict with the civilian government led by President Asif Ali Zardari, the generals chose to bide their time and allow a fully democratic transition rather than taking control themselves.
The question now is whether General Kayani’s changes to the military culture that have rendered the prospect of a military coup a secondary risk will continue under General Sharif. Given the prime minister’s seeming comfort with the choice, and the opinion of senior military analysts, most saw continued restraint to be the most likely result.
Other challenges remain.
The American military withdrawal from Afghanistan next door, as well as the continued and deeply unpopular C.I.A. drone strike campaign within Pakistani territory, have kept apprehensions high among Pakistani officials. Despite often-strained relations, the Obama administration has continued to seek Pakistani military and intelligence cooperation on those issues, presenting a difficult balancing act for the country’s military leadership.

Salman Masood reported from Islamabad, and Declan Walsh from London.