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India-Pakistan | ||
Army chief will not get extension | ||
2010-05-18 | ||
ISLAMABAD - The government has ruled out the prospect of giving extension to army chief Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani who will retire in November this year. “The government is neither granting extension to the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) nor has the General Kayani sought it,' Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar said while talking to reporters in Lahore. Gen. Kayani (55) is the 14th chief of the Pakistan Army who assumed the office on November 28, 2007, after the retirement of former military ruler Gen. Pervez Musharraf who kept the office for about nine years. The tenure for the post is three years.
President Asif Zardari and Gen. Kayani are known to have enjoyed a kind of rocky relationship ever since Zardari took office. In public speeches the president has been accusing the “establishment' of conspiring to dislodge him.
Speculations have been continuing in the country and abroad that Gen. Kayani might be given extension in view of his role in the restoration of democracy and successful military operations in Swat and South Waziristan. He has established a close rapport with the US military leadership which has publicly praised his commitment to fight militancy. | ||
Posted by:Steve White |