Although General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani may have called it a day, it seems Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is in no mood to let go off his former army chief easily as he has reportedly offered an advisory role to the retired general which the latter is said to be considering “quite seriously”, informed sources told Pakistan Today on Saturday.
Gen Kayani cast himself in the role of an army chief who resisted the temptation to stretch himself further than the bounds of reason would allow, something which has earned him Prime Minister Sharif’s admiration, said the sources.
Even though Gen Kayani’s brother Brig (r) Amjad Kayani has said that the former army chief would not take up any job after his retirement, the sources said it was most likely that the prime minister would be able to bring him onboard his team of advisers.
Gen Kayani, retired on November 29, after six years as Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff—making him the longest-serving army chief never to take over the country.
During his long tenure, the general carved out a new, sleeker role for the army chief, retreating from active involvement in politics even as the army brass kept their control of foreign policy, national security, and certain sectors of the economy—poking the elected civilians, when necessary, from behind a thin veil of non-interference.
Kayani jealously guarded the army’s traditional interests, while almost sundering the country’s longstanding alliance with the United States. His appointment in an advisory capacity would mean continuity in Pakistan’s approach ahead of a pullout of most foreign troops from Afghanistan at the end of 2014.