ISLAMABAD, Jan 16: The selection board 2004 held for the promotion of Brigadiers on Friday at the General Headquarters recommended 18 officers for the next rank.

Chief of Army Staff Gen Pervez Musharraf presided over the board with all corps commanders as members. Out of the 800 officers granted commission in the Army during years 1974 and 1975, only 104 made it to the rank of Brigadiers after qualifying stringent promotion criterion comprising various courses, promotion examinations and earlier selection boards.

This year the selection board considered these 104 Brigadiers and recommended 18 officers (2.2 per cent of officers commissioned in 1974-75) fit for promotion to the rank of Major-General.

The promoted Brigadiers are: Ayyaz Saleem Rana, Bilal Omer Khan, Zahid Pervez, Iftikhar Ahmed Chauhdry, Syed Muhammad Owais, Naeem Khalid Lodhi, Javed Iqbal, Ahmed Bilal, Qasim Qureshi, Mukhtar Ahmed, Khalid Nawaz Khan, Sardar Mahmood Ali Khan, Muhammad Alam Khattak, Niaz Muhammad Khan Khattak, Muhammad Tahir Saeed, Muhammad Asaad, Shafique Ahmad Kayani and Muhammad Rehan Burney.-APP