Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa appointed new COAS

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday appointed General Qamar Javed Bajwa as the new Chief of Army Staff (COAS) and Lt. Gen. Zubair Hayat as Chairman Joint Chief of Staff Committee.

According to details, new COAS Lt Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa is a career infantry officer belonging to the Baloch Regiment. Lt Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa and Lt Gen Zubair Hayat will be promoted to the rank of four-star generals.

Both generals will assume their new posts from Tuesday, the day the current Army Chief General Raheel Sharif departs.

Others in contention for the post of army chief were Bahawalpur Corps Commander Lt Gen Javed Iqbal Ramday and Multan Corps Commander Lt Gen Ishfaq Nadeem. All four generals are from the PMA’s 62nd long course, but have had different career trajectories.

The formal process for nomination starts when the General Headquarters sends a list of the senior-most generals to the prime minister via the defence ministry, but without making any formal recommendations. The PM then holds informal consultations with the outgoing army chief before announcing his decision.

Lt Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa was something of a dark horse in this race for the post of COAS. He is currently serving at the GHQ as Inspector General of Training and Evaluation — the position Gen Sharif held before becoming army chief — he has commanded the 10 Corps, the army’s largest, which is responsible for the area along the Line of Control (LoC).

Lt Gen Bajwa has extensive experience of handling affairs in Kashmir and the Northern Areas of the country. As a major general, he led the Force Command Northern Areas. He also served in the 10 Corps as lieutenant colonel, where he was GSO.

Despite his extensive involvement with Kashmir and northern areas, Bajwa is said to consider extremism a bigger threat for the country than India. Lt Gen Bajwa has served with a UN mission in Congo as a brigade commander alongside former Indian army chief Gen Bikram Singh, who was also there as a division commander.

He has previously served as the commandant of the Infantry School in Quetta. His military colleagues say he is not attention-seeking and remains well-connected with his troops.

“He is extremely professional, but very easy-going and full of compassion,” an officer who had served under him said, adding that he was not protocol-minded either. Gen Bajwa is also said to be an apolitical person without any biases.

Lt Gen Zubair Hayat is from the artillery and the serving Chief of General Staff (CGS). As a three-star general, he was previously posted as director general of the Strategic Plans Division (SPD), which is the secretariat of the NCA; and corps commander Bahawalpur.

His postings as CGS and DG SPD afforded him an opportunity to work very closely with PM Sharif and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar.

During his tenure as a major general, he was general officer commanding (GOC) Sialkot and later headed the Staff Duties (SD) Directorate, whose personnel are commonly known in the army as ‘paper tigers’. His stay at the directorate and his earlier posting as principal staff officer to the army chief brought him closer to General Kayani, and he is generally seen as General Kayani’s protégé.

However, his primary shortcoming is that he has never served in a conflict zone.

Some of those who worked with him describe him as ‘workaholic’ and a ‘vociferous reader’. He is also said to have a very sharp memory.