Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif will leave for a crucial five-day visit to the United States (US) on Sunday evening (today), where he is scheduled to meet his US counterpart, secretary of defence and other senior military and civilian officials.
ISPR Director-General Lt. General Asim Bajwa, who has already reached Washington to facilitate the details of the visit, tweeted earlier that the army chief would hold meetings on a range of security issues during his visit from November 15 to 20.
This will be army chief’s second visit to Washington in a year. It follows Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s visit to the US last month where he held extensive talks with US administration officials.
Some experts believe that most of the contentious issues between Pakistan and the US would be discussed during Gen Sharif’s visit, keeping in view army’s influence and the army chief’s key role in strategic issues, including Afghan peace process, Pakistan’s nuclear programme and relations with Pakistan’s neighbours including India, China, Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Reports in media claimed, citing Pentagon officials, that General Raheel Sharif had himself made the request for the visit.
However, a diplomatic source told Pakistan Today that the visit had not been arranged on Pakistan’s request at all, adding that the trip was planned soon after US President Barack Obama’s new defence team took over.
The source, requesting anonymity, said that the visit was planned almost five months ago through “mutual understanding”. The source termed the debate in the media about who had requested the visit as “vicious” and said that it countered the significance of the visit.
“It is an official visit by all means. Army chief changed, so it was decided to consult on strategic issues. It is very much an official visit. He is going to meet US military chief, defence secretary and other officials of the Ministry of Defence,” the source said.
The source added that since the army chief is also set to discuss the Afghan peace process, there is likelihood that meetings with senior State Department officials would also be held.
Senior defence experts also believe that it is irrelevant who had made a request for the meeting.
General (r) Talat Masud, a senior commentator on defence issues, said that he believed the US trip was aimed at discussing the situation in Afghanistan.
“It seems both sides would like to discuss and to converge on future strategy for peace and development in the war-torn Afghanistan. The debate on whether or not the visit was arranged on the request of the army chief is not surprising,” he said.
However, Masud pointed out that the US had made this trip public months ago. “This is a routine matter and countries do follow this practice,” he added.
“In my view, Gen Raheel Sharif might have made a request for the US trip as he might want more cooperation from the US on Afghanistan. He also wanted to discuss Afghanistan to get more clarity over the vision of the new US defence team for the future of Afghanistan. It might also be a case that General Sharif thought himself a better interlocutor than Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif,” he said.
Dr Hassan Askari Rizvi said that the concerns of the government regarding Gen Raheel’s US trip were unfounded and had no weight.
“The world recognises that the army has played an effective role to curb terrorism in Pakistan while there is no initiative from the civilian leadership in this regard. Look at the Paris attacks, the French president is leading the response after the Paris attacks from the front. While the performance of our prime minister has been dismal and only the interior minister addresses press conferences on security issues from time to time. The army chief, on the other hand, has delivered on countering the menace of terrorism and this is the reason that the international community looks towards the army for delivering on the issues that they are interested in,” he said.
“US is interested in making Afghanistan stable, which is why they are more eager to meet General Raheel than anyone else,” he added. “It is irrelevant who made the request. What is important is to see how much weight the US government gives to the army chief’s visit,” he continued.
Rizvi said that it seemed as if Pakistan’s civilian government was behind the news which suggested that General Sharif had made the request for the visit, as it would undermine the significance of the visit.
“This is a very important visit. Stability in Afghanistan is the core agenda of the US government and they would want Pakistan’s support in this regard,” he added.
Political commentator Dr Rasool Bux Raees said the request could be from either side.
“Such trips might be initiated from either side. If the US does not want to receive him according to the protocol, they would not have agreed to the visit,” he said.
However, Dr Raees said that the question remained whether the decision about the visit was taken independently by the army leadership or the civilian leadership was also on board.
“Moreover, it is not clear whether the COAS is going to meet only military officials or if he is also going to meet with President Obama or Secretary Kerry. If the COAS is going to meet Obama, the question arises whether the COAS had consulted prime minister Nawaz Sharif before finalising the details of his visit or if the civilian leadership came to know about the trip through media,” he argued.
“If the PM House was not consulted before scheduling the meeting with Obama, then it’s a serious matter because such visits cannot be finalised without taking the civilian leadership on board. But if the COAS only meets the US military leadership, then I think it may be aimed to discuss the Afghan peace process, situation on the Pak-Afghan border and operation Zarbe Azb,” Dr Raees added.