What lies for Pakistan in store in the post-Kayani era?

The office of the Chief of Army Staff was introduced by ZAB when he came to power. General Gul Hassan was the first person to hold this office. He was followed by General Tikka Khan, General Zia ul Haque, General Aslam Baig, General Asif Nawaz, General Abdul Waheed Khan, General Jahangir Karamat, General Pervez Musharraf and General Asfhaque Pervez Kayani. Prior to General Gul Hassan the office of the Army Chief used to be called the Commander-in-Chief. Pakistan had two of them i.e General Ayub Khan and General Yahya Khan. General Kayani has been the eleventh Army Chief and the fourth longest serving.
His era of reign has been among the most tumultuous. Under him Pakistan has fought a large part of the so-called War on Terror, which was a legacy from General Pervez Musharraf era. I have used the phrase ‘his era of reign’ keeping in view the key position the country’s Army Chief has traditionally enjoyed in the equation of power. The country’s power-structure has in effect always been dependent on the person sitting at the helm of affairs in the GHQ. No head of the government in Pakistan’s history has been able to brush aside the power of the uniform that General Ashfaque Pervez Kayani will shed on the 29th of November this year. Precisely why General Kayani is being richly commended for not harbouring any political ambitions. There are of course critics who believe that by allowing this country to degenerate into a ‘near-failed-sate’ status at the hands of a group of some of the most corrupt politicians the world has ever known, General Kayani may have built his gentlemanly image, but has failed in the area of doing service to his country.
Whether or not General Kayani was a pivotal figure in the Troika of Power that included both Mr. Asif Ali Zardari and Mian Nawaz Sharif, will be judged correctly by history. But there is no doubt that he is leaving the centre of the stage with the reputation of a General who preferred Responsibility over Ambition. His successor (whosoever he is) may find environments conducive to merging the two.
08-10-2013