General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, NI(M), HI(Urdu: اشفاق پرویز کیانی , born April 1952) is a four star general in the Pakistan Army, and the current Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army. He replaced General Pervez Musharraf as the Chief of Army Staff and the commandant of the army on November 29, 2007. General Kayani is the former Director General of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and Director General of Military Operations (MO). On 24 July 2010, prime minister Yousaf Raza Gillani extended General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani’s term as Chief of the Army Staff by three years, making him the first Pakistani four star general to receive a term extension from any democratic government.[2]
Professional career
Benazir's Secretary and DGMO
Kayani has also served as her deputy military secretary of
Benazir Bhutto during her first stint as
prime minister. He also served as the General Officer Commander (GOC) 12th Infantry Division stationed in
Murree, deployed all over the
Line of Controland which comes under the X Corps (Rawalpindi).
Kayani's career progressed and he went on to serve as the Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) from December 2000 to September 2003. It was during his tenure as DGMO that the intense
military standoff of 2001-2002 between Pakistan and India took place.
Corps Commander Rawalpindi
Kayani was promoted as
Lieutenant General in September 2003, and was given the command of the X Corps in Rawalpindi. The promotion indicated Musharraf's significant trust in Kayani, since an army chief cannot build an army coup without the help of the X Corps commander. Kayani led the corps until October 2004, when he was transferred to the
ISI as its chief.
During Kayani's tenure at the X Corps, he led the successful investigation of the two back-to-back suicide attacks against Musharraf in December 2003. It is believed that Kayani won the trust of Musharraf after the investigation, and a prelude to Kayani's promotion to the sensitive position of ISI chief.
[3] He was awarded
Hilal-e-Imtiaz, the civilian medal, for his achievement.
Inter-Services Intelligence
Kayani was also present at the infamous March 2007 meeting that took place between Musharraf and Chief Justice
Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, when the former military ruler informed the strong-willed top judge that he was suspended. Accounts of that meeting narrated that Kayani was the only one among Musharraf’s aides that did not speak a word.
[5]Chief of Army Staff
In October 2007, Kayani was promoted as a full general, and made the
Vice Chief of Army Staff. At the time of promotion, Kayani superseded one officer, Lt Gen
Khalid Kidwai who was on an extension for a year. He took over as the new army chief of Pakistan Army after Musharraf's retirement on November 28, 2007. The ceremony was held at the sports stadium near General Headquarters,
Rawalpindi. Kayani is the first officer in the history of Pakistan who held the position of DG ISI and then went on to become the
Chief of Army Staff (COAS). The last time a Director General of the ISI was to be made
army chief in 1999, the Army staged a bloodless coup to reinstate the proposed outgoing Chief of Army Staff, General
Pervez Musharraf.
Withdrawal of military from civilian government
In January 2008 General Kayani passed a directive which ordered military officers not to maintain contacts with politicians.
[6] It was further made public on 13 February 2008 that General Kayani ordered the withdrawal of military officers from all of Pakistan's government civil departments. It was an action that reversed the policies of his predecessor, President Musharraf. It was welcomed by President Musharraf’s critics, who have long demanded that the military distance itself from politics. The Pakistani media reported that the army officers would be withdrawn from 23 wide-ranging civil departments, including the
National Highway Authority,
National Accountability Bureau, Ministry of Education, and
Water and Power Development Authority.
[7]2008 general election
On 7 March 2008 General Kayani confirmed that Pakistan's armed forces will stay out of politics and support the new government. He told a gathering of military commanders in the garrison city of Rawalpindi that "the army fully stands behind the democratic process and is committed to playing its constitutional role." The comments made were after the results of the
Pakistani general election, 2008 where the
Pakistan Peoples Party won the election and began forming a coalition government who were opposed to President
Pervez Musharraf.
[8]Perception as COAS
Since taking up his current post, a steady parade of top-level U.S. officials have visited General Kayani to make up their own minds about him. Most, including CIA chief
Michael Hayden, National Intelligence Director
Mike McConnell and former
CENTCOM-commander Admiral
William Fallon have come away confident that Kayani "knows what he’s doing."
[9]
Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Kayani has been described as a "
soldier’s soldier" by US military officials. When he was appointed army chief, his first move was to visit the front lines in the
Federally Administered Tribal Areas, something that most US Generals very rarely do with the war in Afghanistan. Spending the Muslim holiday of Eid not with his family, but rather with his soldiers prompted American military officials to praise him as a "soldier’s soldier." A U.S. report quoted retired
Pakistani military officials as saying that in "
an army deeply enmeshed in Pakistani politics, General Kayani had declined to ally himself with any political groups". As a junior officer, he briefly served as a military aide to
Benazir Bhutto during her first term as
prime minister in the late 1980s, but has stayed away from politicians since then.
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