Pakistan's new Army Chief General Bajwa removes ISI head in major reshuffle

coastaldigest.com news network

December 12, 2016

Dec 12: Pakistan's new army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa today abruptly removed the head of the country's spy agency ISI and made several other significant changes in the Army's top brass, as part of a major reshuffle.

Gen Bajwa, who took over from Gen Raheel Sharif two weeks ago, however, did not name Lt Gen Rizwan Akhtar's successor at the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

Lt Gen Akhtar has been appointed President of the National Defence University (NDU), the army said in a statement.

The newly-promoted Lt Gen Bilal Akbar has been appointed Chief of General Staff, it said.

Lt Gen Nazir Butt - presently President of the NDU - has been appointed Corps Commander Peshawar (11Corps), replacing Lt Gen Hidayat-ur-Rehman, who was appointed Inspector-General Training and Evaluation (IGT&E) at General Headquarters (GHQ).

Lt Gen Asim Salim Bajwa, presently heading army's media wing, has been appointed Inspector-General Arms (IG Arms) at GHQ.

ISI, ISPR HEADS AWAITED

On December 9, seven major generals were promoted to lieutenant generals, the statement said. And On November 29, Gen Javed Bajwa officially took charge as the 16th Chief of Army Staff during a ceremony in Rawalpindi.

A career infantry officer belonging to the Baloch Regiment, Gen Javed Bajwa is said to have extensive experience of handling affairs in Kashmir and northern areas of Pakistan.

Among other changes he undertook today, the newly promoted Lt Gen Hamayun Aziz has been appointed Inspector General C&IT at GHQ, while newly promoted Lt Gen Qazi Ikram has been appointed Chief of Logistic Staff at GHQ.

Another newly promoted Lt Gen Sher Afgun has been posted 31 Corps Commander which is based in Bahawalpur near Indian border, while newly Promoted Lt Gen Muhammad Afzal will continue as DG FWO and newly promoted Lt Gen Naeem Ashraf has been appointed Chairman Heavy Industries Taxila(HIT).

The army chief has not appointed heads of ISI, ISPR and Rangers in Sindh.

Officials said the army chief might consult the political leadership before making these "politically sensitive appointments."

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In meeting with Zohran Mamdani, Trump repeats claim he stopped India-Pak war

Agencies

November 22,2025

New York/Washington: US President Donald Trump has again claimed to have solved the conflict between India and Pakistan, repeating his assertion during a meeting with New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in the Oval Office.

Mamdani flew to Washington DC for his first meeting with Trump in the White House on Friday. Trump said he “enjoyed” the meeting, which he described as “great.”

During remarks in the Oval Office, with Mamdani standing next to him, Trump repeated his claim that he solved the May conflict between India and Pakistan.

"I did eight peace deals of countries, including India and Pakistan,” he said.

On Wednesday, Trump had said he threatened to put 350 per cent tariffs on India and Pakistan if they did not end their conflict, repeating his claim that he solved the fighting between the nuclear-armed neighbours and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called him to say “we're not going to go to war.”

Since May 10, when Trump announced on social media that India and Pakistan had agreed to a “full and immediate” ceasefire after a “long night” of talks mediated by Washington, he has repeated his claim over 60 times that he “helped settle” the tensions between India and Pakistan.

India has consistently denied any third-party intervention. India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam attack that killed 26 civilians. India and Pakistan reached an understanding on May 10 to end the conflict after four days of intense cross-border drone and missile strikes.

Mamdani emerged victorious in the closely-watched battle for New York City Mayor, becoming the first South Asian and Muslim to be elected to sit at the helm of the largest city in the US.

He had been the front-runner in the NYC Mayoral election for months and defeated Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa and political heavyweight former New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent candidate and was officially endorsed by Trump just hours before the elections.

Indian-descent Mamdani is the son of renowned filmmaker Mira Nair and Columbia University professor Mahmood Mamdani. He was born and raised in Kampala, Uganda and moved to New York City with his family when he was 7. Mamdani became a naturalised US citizen only recently, in 2018.

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