As he settled down to his job as army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa -- who died last week; his passing did not merit even an obituary in major print or electronic media in Pakistan! -- developed a vision of reducing his country's and his institution, the army's traditional hostility toward India, points out Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at RA&W.
Deferred payment plans may come with a cost, which may not be immediately visible.
'Pakistan has found itself in a favourable position after Operation Sindoor by appreciating the mediation as claimed by Trump and recommending him for the Nobel Peace Prize.'
'Pakistan's army has got a streak of democracy. It is more democratic than the country.'
Nawaz Sharif's appointment of a new army chief will influence India-Pakistan relations
Raheel's comments assume significance as they come amidst the strain in Indo-Pak ties after the Uri terror attack and India's surgical strikes on terror launch pads in PoK.
General Raheel Sharif on Friday assumed charge as Pakistan's new army chief at a ceremony in Rawalpindi, where outgoing army chief general Ashfaq Parvez Kayani passed on the command stick to him.
Musharraf, 73, in a talk show on Dunya News last week had said: "Well he (Raheel Sharif) did help me and I am absolutely clear and grateful. I have been his boss and I have been the army chief before him... He helped out, because the cases are politicised, they put me on the exit control list, they turned it into a political issue."
When asked to explain, Musharraf, 73, said Gen Sharif played a role in "releasing the pressure" on courts to prevent him from leaving the country.
Pakistan media reports stated that the decision to oust Imran Khan was taken by Bajwa and three senior lieutenant generals at a meeting which took place after the army chief and Lieutenant General Nadeem Anjum -- director-general, Inter Services Intelligence, the ISI -- met Imran Khan.
Gen Sharif had earlier promised to bow out at the end of his term in November this year.
'Munir hopes to solidify his hold on power.'
India should remember that Pakistan-Saudi Arabia relations will remain special due, not least, to bonds of all Muslims with The Holy Land. They would also be strategic enough, irrespective of whether the ambassador is a military man or a career civilian appointee., notes Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency.
This will be the fifth time that Prime Minister Sharif will pick the top commander of the country's nearly 550,000 ground troops.
If General Asim Munir, Pakistan's new army chief, wants to help defuse the current polarised atmosphere and shepherd civilian politicians towards negotiations on an acceptable date for elections, he may need to distance himself from any perception of needless hostility to Imran Khan, explains Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at RA&W, India's external intelligence agency.
India had better be prepared. Munir could be back at our throats soon, even within the next 12 months, warns Shekhar Gupta.
Nawaz Sharif may have permitted the trial of Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists for the Pathankot attack. But this fell apart because of General Raheel Shareef's keenness to make Kulbhushan Jadhav the centerpiece of global attention. Ambassador G Parthasarthy, a former Indian high commissioner to Pakistan, reveals the Pakistan army chief's gambit against India.
A senior minister in Sharif's cabinet told The Express Tribune that the army chief has been pushing for the appointment of Janjua as the new NSA since months, but Sharif preferred Aziz.
With its new army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa set to take charge, Pakistan has asserted that focus will remain on country's eastern border with India, even as the US nudged Islamabad to keep the pledge of not allowing use of its soil for terror attacks against neighbours.
'Pakistan's only concern has been while they were on the FATF watch list was to distance their State institutions and organs from any direct connection with the actual execution of militancy inside Kashmir.'
Pakistan army chief General Raheel Sharif on Wednesday dashed off to Afghanistan to seek extradition of Taliban leader Mullah Fazlluah, whose group claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on an army school in Peshawar, which left 141 people, mostly children, dead.
Pakistan's powerful army chief General Raheel Sharif has asked the United States to target the hideouts of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan terrorists and their chief Mullah Fazlullah in Afghanistan.
These promotions will allow General Bajwa to shuffle the deck on the top, but this is likely to be a limited reshuffle, points out Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency.
Pakistan's army chief General Raheel Sharif will visit Afghanistan tomorrow to meet the new leaders there and discuss security issues, including the thorny one of Pakistani Taliban militants hiding there.
Pakistan's new Army Chief has begun setting the stage to act against groups like LeT and JeM
Warning India of "unbearable damage" in case of a war, Pakistan's army chief General Raheel Sharif has said his troops are ready to tackle any long or short misadventure by the "enemy".
He said time has come for freedom of PoK and it would be part of India soon.
'New Delhi feels that given the internal dynamics in Pakistan and the overwhelming powers wielded by the army, one will have to wait for better times to see any meaningful progress in the India-Pakistan relationship,' says Ambassador G Parthasarthy.
Ending weeks of speculation, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday appointed Lt Gen Raheel Sharif as Pakistan's new army chief and Lt Gen Rashid Mehmood as the chairman joint chiefs of staff committee.
In one his strongest remarks on Kashmir, Pakistan Army Chief General Raheel Sharif on Wednesday said it is an "unfinished agenda" of the partition in 1947 and Pakistan and Kashmir are "inseparable".
Saeed claimed, "Kashmiris had announced before the partition that it wanted to remain with Pakistan. But after partition India forcibly sent army to Jammu and Kashmir."
Pakistan army chief says Islamabad will continue to support the people of Kashmir on the 'diplomatic and ethical' fronts.
'We will have to wait till the snows melt in June/July 2016 before we can get a clearer idea of whether Pakistan intends to get serious about ending support for cross-border terrorism,' says G Parthasarathy, India's former high commissioner to Pakistan.
Initial reports state that one person died and three others have been injured.
'General Bajwa is believed to consider the internal threats to Pakistan's security as far more serious than the bogey of the Indian threat.' 'This doesn't mean that he is soft on India, only that he is more rational and sensible than his predecessor who had a bit of a chip on his shoulder about India,' points out Pakistan expert Sushant Sareen.
'After General Raheel Sharif took on the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, some sections of the military establishment may have felt unease as to whether the crackdown could be extended against friendlier 'non-State' actors like the Lashkar-e-Tayiba.'
The Saudi-led coalition is also engaged in a military operation in Yemen since March 2015 when Houthis drove out the government led by President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who is believed to be in exile in Saudi Arabia.
General Qamar Javed Bajwa, an expert in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir affairs, on Tuesday took over as Pakistan's new army chief succeeding General Raheel Sharif and promised to improve the tense situation at the Line of Control soon.
Lt Gen Zubair Hayat appointed as Chairman of Joint Chief of Staff Committee.
Pak PM discussed the situation in Kashmir and tense relations with India with Army chief Gen Raheel Sharif.
