Pakistan names Lieutenant General Raheel Sharif as new army chief

Pakistan on Wednesday named a new army chief, a job seen as the most powerful position in the troubled nuclear-armed nation which has seen three periods of military rule.

General Raheel Sharif will take over as head of the 600,000-strong army from General Ashfaq Kayani, who is retiring after six years at the helm.

The change of command comes with the country facing a daunting array of challenges – a homegrown Taliban insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives, vexed relations with India and the winding-down of the 12-year Nato mission in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Sharif, whose elder brother won Pakistan’s highest military award for valour in the 1971 war with India, will formally take command on Thursday.

A message from the office of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif confirmed General Sharif had been made chief of the army staff and General Rashid Mehmood had been made chairman of the joint chiefs of staff committee.

Departing commander Kayani has served as army chief since 2007 and has been given much credit for resisting the temptation to meddle overtly in politics.

When he confirmed his retirement last month he stressed that the armed forces “fully support and want to strengthen” democracy.