ELECTION 99
US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Pak navy chief resigns

Pakistan Navy chief Admiral Fasih Bokhari today resigned from his post, domestic news agencies reported.

Adm Bokhari met Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharief and conveyed his request for early retirement.

"The prime minister acceded to the request of Admiral Fasih Bokhari and appointed Vice-Admiral Abdul Aziz Mirza as the new chief of the naval staff," state-run television reported.

Mirza has been promoted to the rank of admiral.

The official report did not give the reason for Bokhari's premature retirement. But his request came a few days after Sharief extended the tenure of powerful army chief General Pervez Musharraf as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee.

Gen Musharaff's tenure as CJCSC was to expire in the year 2000, but has been extended up to October 2001 following reports of a simmering rift between Sharief and the army.

DPA

Tell us what you think of this report