ISLAMABAD, 9 October 2007 — Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf installed a loyalist and former spymaster as deputy army chief yesterday, handpicking his successor as leader of the military in a key step to restoring civilian rule.
Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani, who has helped spearhead the fight against Taleban and Al-Qaeda and represented the president in crunch political negotiations, took up the position yesterday with a show of military pomp.
Musharraf had promised to step down as head of the country’s nuclear-armed military if he won another five-year term in a presidential election on Saturday.
He won by a landslide, but must now wait for the Supreme Court to rule on the legality of the election by the national Parliament and provincial assemblies before the result is declared official.
Kiyani, the former head of the Inter-Services Intelligence or ISI, received a guard of honor as he arrived at army headquarters in Rawalpindi, a military statement said.
“A ceremony was held at the general headquarters to formally welcome the newly appointed vice chief of army staff on assuming charge of the new appointment,” a military statement said.
“A smartly turned out contingent of the Pakistan Army presented a guard of honor to the vice chief of army staff.” The army has described Kiyani as the designated successor to Musharraf.
The chain-smoking Kiyani has developed good relations with the United States amid the Pakistani military’s campaign to drive Al-Qaeda and Taleban rebels from the troubled tribal belt.
Kiyani also led Musharraf’s side in recent power-sharing talks with former Premier Benazir Bhutto, which led last week to a reconciliation agreement that gives the exiled ex-premier an amnesty on corruption charges.
He was also Benazir’s deputy military secretary during one of her two terms in power in the late 1980s and the 1990s. Benazir is set to fly back to the southern city of Karachi on Oct. 18 to lead her Pakistan People’s Party in general elections due by mid-January.
A day earlier, the Supreme Court is due to resume hearing legal challenges against the presidential election.
Quake Anniversary
Pakistan yesterday observed the second anniversary of the deadly earthquake on Oct. 8, 2005, that killed thousands in its northern territories, as Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz described the day as one of the most tragic in the nation’s history.
In Azad Kashmir, a public holiday was observed and the day was declared a day of national mourning.
