ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will visit the General Headquarters on Tuesday to get a briefing from the top military leadership on the current security situation in the country.

A brief official handout issued on Monday said Mr Sharif would first lay a floral wreath at the memorial of martyrs and then hold a meeting with the outgoing Chief of the Army Staff, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. It will be followed by a detailed briefing.

Although the media wing of the Prime Minister’s Office has downplayed the meeting, close watchers say many pressing issues, including talks with the Taliban and appointment of a new army chief and Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee — the post currently held by Gen Kayani after the retirement of Gen Khalid Shameem Wynne in the first week of October — will come under discussion.

Prime Minister Sharif has said before and after his election that the next army chief will be appointed on merit and the most senior general will get the charge.

Haroon Aslam is the most senior general after Gen Kayani.

But despite Gen Kayani’s announcement that he would not seek another extension, observers believe, the prime minister’s apparent foot-dragging on the announcement of the next COAS means he is keeping his options open.

Information Minister Senator Pervez Rashid, who is also spokesman for the prime minister, recently said the announcement for the next army chief would be made on Nov 28, the day General Kayani retires.

He dropped no hint as to who would be the next army chief and only said the decision would be taken in the best interest of the country.

“Prime Minister Sharif may have made up his mind about the future army chief, but his visit to the GHQ at this time will be keenly watched because he will get first-hand information about the entire top brass of the military,” a government official said.

Besides getting input from the retiring army chief, Mr Sharif would also use his own judgment in choosing the next COAS and probably this visit was meant for this very purpose, the official added.

Taliban talks

The prime minister will also be briefed by the military leadership on the pros and cons of contacting new TTP chief Maulana Fazlullah, a sworn enemy of the army. Following the TTP’s latest threat to carry out attacks on the military and government installations and functionaries, the government is virtually in a bind as far as the proposed peace talks with the Taliban are concerned.

Although in his speech in the National Assembly on Monday, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan linked the resumption of peace talks to the halting of drone attacks by the Americans, the military establishment wouldn’t be feeling comfortable with the government’s contact with Fazlullah.