ISLAMABAD : Nov 23,2022: Defence minister , Khawaja Asif, who normally remains cool and calm while dealing with media persons , got irritated here on Wednesday when he was asked the same question by a group of journalists. The journalists who come across him outside the Parliament raised several tricky questions for the minister showing concern over delay in appointment of the new army chief..
‘I have answered the same question on appointment of the new army chief again and again and what I can assure at this point is that you need not to go in anxiety as all is good on the issue. If you (journalists) will not generate spikes (speculations) everything will settle down on the issue of appointment of the army chief in a day or two”, visibily perturbed Mr Khawaja told to the journalists here on Wednesday .
Khawaja Asif is repeatedly assuring to the people at every forum it may be Parliament or any other that there was nothing to worry about and the appointment of the new army chief is not far, but since it’s the most hot issue in Pakistan now he is facing biting questions from the journalists whenever they across him.
The minister again gave his hearth throbbing assurance to the journalists that everything was fine and they should wait for a couple of days more to see the end result, but the media persons kept asking him tricky questions relating to the appointment of the new army chief.
Incumbent army chief , Qamar Javed Bajwa, is retiring on November 29 (Just after a week ) ,but things are still not clear as to who will be the next army chief .
There was a deep concern over delay in sending a summary by the General Headquarters (GHQ) of the army in Rawalpindi to the prime minister office . This development fanned rumours and speculations. Now after a weeklong tense wait , GHQ finally issued a statement on November 23, at 12.14 AM that it has sent a summary to the minstry of Defence (MoD) ,containing six names of top generals for appointment of the new army chief.
The summary probably contains the names of top six Lt generals including gen Asim Munir , gen Sahir Shamshad Mirza, gen Azhar Abbas, gen Noman, Gen Faiz Hameed and gen Amir .
With moving of the summary , it’s expected that the government can appoint the new army chief in couple of days.
Meanwhile, the prime minister office confirmed it has received a summary from MoD having 6 .names of Lt generals for an appointment of the new army chief
