ISLAMABAD, NOV 21: (DNA) –  In the build-up to the appointment of the next army chief, all candidates appear to be evenly poised and there are no clear front-runners.

When Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif finally sits down to choose Gen Raheel Sharif’s successor, his decision will be guided by personal choices, political considerations, and, in a couple of cases,

his own experience of working with the candidates , with a great temptation to go for someone safe, retired and serving bureaucrats and military officials told in background discussions.

The succession would take place upon the retirement of Gen Sharif at the end of November.

This will be the fifth time that PM Sharif — who already holds a record of sorts for being the prime minister who has appointed the most army chiefs , will pick the top commander of the country’s nearly 550,000 ground troops.

If his botched attempt to replace Gen Musharraf with Ziauddin Butt in 1999 is also counted, this will be the sixth time PM Sharif gets to choose a chief of army staff.

His earlier picks were Gen Asif Nawaz Janjua (1991), Gen Waheed Kakar (1993), Gen Pervez Musharraf (1998) and Gen Raheel Sharif (2013). Of the seven army chiefs after Gen Zia, five were handpicked by Mr Sharif.

His earlier picks were Gen Asif Nawaz Janjua (1991), Gen Waheed Kakar (1993), Gen Pervez Musharraf (1998) and Gen Raheel Sharif (2013). Of the seven army chiefs after Gen Zia, five were handpicked by Mr Sharif.

PM has four options before him for the office of army chief, chairman joint chiefs

Notwithstanding the complexities involved in choosing an army chief, the prime minister is said to have developed a special interest in the exercise.

One of the few things he did soon after his election victory in May 2013 was to consult some of his close aides on who the next chief should be, even though he had then not yet taken the oath of office and a change of command was six months away.

The advice PM Sharif received from one of his aides on that occasion was: remember what had happened when seniority had been ignored in the past; not underestimate the power of the office of army chief; and get rid of the apna banda (‘our man’) mindset.

This advice was based on the premise that the moment any general assumes office, he is immediately overwhelmed by the appointment and loses his individuality.

Those who were involved with the succession exercise in 2013 say PM Sharif did heed the advice and stuck to the seniority list,

appointing Gen Rashad Mehmood as Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) and Gen Raheel Sharif as Chief of Army Staff.

On that occasion, it was thought that Gen Haroon Aslam, the senior-most general, had been superseded, but it was subsequently learnt that then army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani had advised against his elevation.=DNA

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