Ref the Appointments of Gen Raheel Sharif and Gen. Rashid Mehmood:- PM Nawaz was within his constitutional and conventional right to select any from the top senior generals and he has worked within that convention. He selected two generals, as per his discretion, from a top list of three. To that extent there is not much scope for any controversy. However it is the job of the political analyst to dig deeper to analyze and understand the imperatives that govern or inform the process of decision making at the top level; why for instance one selection for COAS and why not the other? Why not Haroon as CJCSC or Rashid as COAS? this analysis only help us to understand the mind of the PM as to what ticks him? and why? This is not about Gen. Raheel, the new COAS; he comes from a decorated family of soldiers and martyrs and if he had become a three star general then it is not without a track record of achievements and performance. What political analysts debate is the process and the mind of decision making by the Prime Minister and it is here that they try to find a consistent principle behind his decision making or his mind. If the decision was on seniority then Haroon should be either the COAS (with Sandilla as CJCSC) or CJCSC (if Army was to get the top slot) and Rashid should have been the COAS. If the decision was that seniority will be set aside to select the best combination of skills and experiences needed to fight the raging insurgencies in FATA and Baluchistan and to successfully interact with the US, NATO and international partners etc at a time of great transition and upheaval and uncertainty given the US withdrawal from Afghanistan then PM had to look for active combat experiences and top level management exposure to such issues and in that case Gen. Haroon, Gen Tariq Khan and Gen. Rashid were bringing a better combination. With this balance sheet in mind, the impression emerges that PM Nawaz had less consideration of these issues and had some other concerns on his mind. What were those concerns or fears only the PM and his closest aides will know...however given the track record of previous Nawaz governments and the last six months the impression is emerging that PM makes his decisions strictly on the basis of loyalty, personal trust and avoids selecting talented people who might look assertive or challenging to him because of their talents, competence and their sense of leadership...now if this is true then sooner or later PM Nawaz will face other kind of problems because his selections (if loyalty and lack of assertiveness is their biggest quality) will often fail to resolve the challenges he faces around as the top leader...every decision has its own consequences... By Moeed Peerzada.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Nov 2013 10:02:09 +0000
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