Pakistan Names New Army Chief

摘要

Pakistan named a new army chief Nov 27, promoting a veteran infantry commander to the most powerful position in the troubled nuclear-armed nation battling a homegrown Taliban insurgency. Gen Raheel Sharif will take over as head of the 600,000-strong army from Gen Ashfaq Kayani, who is retiring after six years at the helm. The change of command comes with the country facing a daunting array of challenges-the six-year Taliban campaign which has claimed thousands of lives, vexed relations with India and the winding-down of the 12-year NATO mission in neighbouring Afghanistan. Sharif, a veteran infantry commander whose elder brother won Pakistan's highest military award for valour in the 1971 war with India, formally took command on Nov 28.