Lt Gen (retired) Asif Yasin Malik, a close aide of Pakistan army chief Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, has been appointed as the country's new defence secretary.
Pakistan's Supreme Court on formally charged Defence Secretary Lt Gen (retired) Asif Yasin Malik for contempt of court after he failed to deliver on an undertaking for holding local body polls in cantonments across the country.
For Pakistan, 'bending is not an option; either forward or backwards. We bend and we get a kick,' Malik, who retired as defence secretary in 2014, was quoted as saying by the Dawn on Friday during the seminar organised by the Strategic Vision Institute.
The trilateral alliance between India, Afghanistan and Iran on the strategic Chabahar port is a security threat to Pakistan, defence experts in Islamabad have said and asked the government to use diplomatic manoeuvres to avert falling into an "abyss of isolation".
Central Intelligence Agency chief John Brennan flew to Pakistan last week for a clandestine meeting with army chief Gen Raheel Sharif to discuss a possible military operation against militants in the country's northwest, a media report said on Monday.