Islamabad: Pakistan's President General Pervez Musharraf appointed a new intelligence chief and promoted five other army generals Friday, days after signaling he would doff his uniform if re-elected president.
Nadeem Taj, who was Musharraf's military secretary when he seized power in a 1999 coup, was among those promoted to the rank of lieutenant general and will replace Ashfaq Kiani as director-general of the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency.
The military did not say whether Kiani will be promoted or retire. He is among the top generals tipped by analysts as a possible successor to Musharraf as army chief.
Musharraf, a key ally of the US in its war on terrorism, this week signaled that he will restore civilian rule if elected president in a ballot of lawmakers on October 6.
However the top post in the army would remain a key position in Pakistan, which has alternated between weak civilian governments and military rule during its 60-year history.
Another possible successor, Tariq Majid, has been replaced as the corps commander of Rawalpindi - where the army has its headquarters - by another of the promoted generals, Mohsin Kamal.
The four other promoted generals were Javed Zia, Shujat Zamir Dar, Muhammad Asghar and Jamil Haider, according to a statement issued by the army Friday.
The promotions come ahead of the expected retirement on October 7 of Musharraf's two top deputies in the army: Gen. Ehsan Ul Haq, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff committee, and Gen. Ahsan Saleem Hayat, vice chief of army staff.
The military has so far has not given any indication who will replace them. Haq is the former chief of ISI and Hayat was the Karachi corps commander before he was elevated as vice army chief in 2004.
Comments
0 comment