ISLAMABAD - In a first major administrative reshuffle at the three-star general level under the command of the incumbent Army Chief, the positions of six lieutenant generals have been changed with the subsequent transfers and postings involving three corps commanders.
All the three newly promoted lieutenant generals who were elevated to the next ranks three days ago have been assigned postings whereas a top strategic commander is replaced. This is the second top-level reshuffle in less than a week at Pakistan's strategic sector overseeing the nuclear assets.
According to details, Lt Gen Syed Tariq Nadeem Gilani, Commander Army Strategic Force Command (ASFC), has been replaced with Lt Gen Obadiullah Khan, newly promoted Lt Gen who was awaiting posting. Gilani is appointed as Chief of Logistics Staff (CLS), a staff position that felt vacant last month after Lt Gen Haroon Aslam proceeded on pre-retirement leave following his supersession, with the elevation of Lt Gen Raheel Sharif to the four-star rank.
Earlier on Wednesday, Director General Strategic Plans Division (SPD) Lt Gen (Retd) Khalid Ahmed Kidwai had stepped down after supervising Pakistan's nuclear assets for nearly 14 years. Following this, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen Raheel Sharif had nominated Corps Commander Bahawalpur Lt Gen Zubair Mehmood Hayat for the vacant slot. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif approved Hayat's nomination.
Pakistan Army's Adjutant General (AG) Lt Gen Javed Iqbal has been appointed Corps Commander Bahawalpur (XXXI Corps). Another reshuffle at the corps commander position was the placement of Lt Gen Zahid Latif Mirza as Commander Army Air Defence Command (AADC). He replaced Lt Gen Syed Zamir-ul-Hassan Shah who was appointed AG.
Lt Gen Ikram-ul-Haq has been appointed on the position of Inspector General Training and Evaluation (IGT&E). This slot has been vacant since last month with the elevation of Raheel Sharif as COAS.
Of the six lieutenant generals reshuffled Monday, four were promoted to the three-star general rank in the ongoing year whereas two were promoted in 2011.
Zahid Mirza, Ikram-ul-Haq and Obaidullah Khattak were promoted to the three-star general rank on Friday, with the supersession of nine two-star generals. They are, Allah Ditta Khan, Inam-ul-Haq, Imran Zafar, Agha Masood, Sohail Ahmed Khan, Imtiaz Sherazi, Nasrullah Dogar, Sajid Iqbal and Jamal Shahid.
Maj Gen Zamir-ul-Hassan was promoted in August this year along with three major generals Javed Iqbal Ramday, Ishfaq Nadeem Ahmad and Qamar Javed Bajwa.
Maj Gen Tariq Nadeem Gilani was made Lt Gen along with Ijaz Chaudhry, Nasser Khan Janjua and Naweed Zaman in October 2011.
Javed Iqbal became Lt Gen along with Ahsan Iqbal, Asif Sajjad and Abid Perviaz in April 2011.
Lt Gen Javed Iqbal is from Infantry's Frontier Force (FF) Regiment, Lt-Gen Ikram-ul-Haq is from Infantry's Azad Kashmir (AK) Regiment, Lt Gen Zahid Mirza and Lt-Gen Zamir-ul-Hassan are from AADC whereas Lt Gen Tariq Gilani and Lt Gen Obaidullah Khattak are from Artillery.
Before the fresh postings, the positions of CLS, IGT&E, Bahawalpur corps commander and engineer-in-chief were vacant, with engineer-in-chief being the only major slot that is yet to be filled in. It got vacant with the appointment of Lt Gen Najibullah Khan as Quarter Master General (QMG) last month.
On November 19, the then COAS Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani had replaced Lt Gen Ijaz Chaudhry with Lt Gen Sajjad Ghani as Karachi Corps Commander (V Corps). Chaudhry was assigned the position of Inspector General Armaments (IGA) at the General Headquarters (GHQ).
In September, Lt Gen Naweed Zaman was appointed Lahore Corps Commander (IV Corps), Maj-Gen Ahmad Mahmood Hayat Deputy Director General (Analysis) at Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) headquarters, Maj Gen Javed Bukhari General Officer Commanding (GOC) 17 Infantry Division Swat while Maj Gen Abid Ejaz Kahloon was appointed GOC 40 Infantry Division Dera Ismail Khan. The two staff appointments that were made then involved the placements of Lt Gen Mazhar Jamil as Military Secretary at GHQ and Lt-Gen Khalid Asghar as Communication and Information Technology (C&IT) IG.