JOIN USIndia expects its last month’s surgical strikes on terrorist launch pads across the Line of Control to impact Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s choice on his country’s new army chief.
Current army chief Gen Raheel Sharif is set to retire in November. Top security officials believe that, following the surgical strikes, the hands of the Pakistan prime minister vis-à-vis the army have been strengthened.
Pakistan has denied the September 28-29 surgical strikes by the Indian Army but reports gathered by the Indian intelligence say that the strikes have caused rumblings within the Pakistan government and its military, so much so that the Indian officials expect Sharif to have sufficient room to make his pick among the top candidates.
Their view is that, prior to the Indian Army’s action, the beleaguered prime minister was troubled by the “leak” of the Panama Papers, in which three of his children were said to have offshore companies.
Life after surgical strike
But, after the surgical strikes, the Pakistani media has been abuzz that Sharif's government has asserted its position.
Pakistan has sought to convey to its military that it must stop patronage of terrorist groups like Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Toiba as their acts were leading to global isolation of the country, officials said.
Therefore, Sharif, who has been under pressure to grant an extension to Gen Raheel Sharif, may exercise other options.
Constitutionally, it is the prime minister who appoints the Pakistani army chief, though the civilian government’s control over the army is often not clear cut.