What with the retirement of the last of the Generals who helped Musharraf oust Nawaz Sharif, we have seen an interesting changing of the guard. Essentially Musharraf has overseen the end of the Zia-ul Haq influence over the Army. The beards have lost out to the beers, if you’ll pardon the play with words. The promotion of two generals whose primary achievements are their close association with Musharraf and “the US War on terror”, marks a significant shift in Pakistan’s Armed forces internal dynamics. It is also an irony that the principle that Mushy invoked to oust Nawaz Sharif (seniority) was ignored when he ousted generals he believed did not neccessarily agree with him.
Also we have the interesting situation that a former ISI chief Gen Ehsan ul Haque is now in the run eventually for the post of COAS. That is kind of funny if it does happen, few countries in the world can boast a former intelligence chief as the head of the Army.
I for one will not shed a tear at the fall of the Ziaists, what is kind of disconcerting is that it was not done as an overall principle of competence over idealogy, it seems like it was done primarily because of simple opportunism.