Asif Nawaz - Chief of Army Staff

Chief of Army Staff

At the completion of three-year term of General Mirza Aslam Beg, four generals were in the race to replace him: Lt Gen Shamim Alam Khan, commander XXXI Corps, Bahawalpur; Lt Gen Asif Nawaz, chief of general staff (CGS); Lt Gen Zulfiqar Akhtar Naz commander I Corps, Mangla ; and Lt Gen Hamid Gul, commander II Corps, Multan. The senior two were promoted as four-star generals, with Shamim Alam Khan being named as Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee and Lt Gen Asif Nawaz, who also came recommended by Gen Rahimuddin Khan, was appointed the Chief of Army Staff to replace Mirza Aslam Beg on 11 June 1991 by President Ghulam Ishaq Khan.

Shortly after being named to the post, General Nawaz said the army had no role in politics other than to defend the civilian government and the country. The army's image had been tarnished and its officers corrupted in Pakistan's 25 years of martial law, he said. Nawaz, whose views tended to be pro-Western, spent much of his brief tenure as COAS trying to improve ties between Pakistan and the United States, the two formerly staunch allies. As a strong believer in liberal values, he was trying to improve the military's relations with India and take Pakistan out of the dead-end legacy of Islamic fundamentalist rhetoric left by his two predecessors, General Zia ul-Haq and General Aslam Beg. During Nawaz's tenure, the army took on the surprising role of becoming a protector of a free press and liberal values of criticism.