GEN (r) Raheel Sharif served as the 15th chief of army staff and carried out operations in North Waziristan, stabilising the north-west of the country and expanding the role of paramilitaries in Karachi, which helped to reduce the level of violence in Pakistan’s commercial capital.

The Pakistan military under his command also supported the democratically-elected federal and Baloch governments in ending the Balochistan insurgency by pursuing a policy of reconciliation and integration of former militants back into mainstream Pakistan society.

Gen(r) Sharif also developed a new brigade-level military unit to help protect and secure the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which runs through the Balochistan province.

He also helped to develop Pakistan’s indigenous defence industry, thus saving more than $1.14bn of Pakistan’s forex over a period of one and a half years.

He also reconciled Pakistan with the US by striking against militant groups near the Afghan border, the Pakistan military carried out its first joint military exercises with Russia, and Pakistan deepened its relations with China. These are some of his achievements.

M. Ahmad Khan
Peshawar

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HOPEFULLY, the recent change in the upper echelons of Pakistan’s military command will bring about a thaw in the tense relationship between India and Pakistan.

The political leaders in both the countries must now take the path of peace and reconciliation .

Needless to say that three wars between the two countries should be enough. Let us give peace a chance.

Both the countries need to better their internal economic, social and educational conditions.

All peace-loving Pakistanis must agree with the feeling that the change of army command may give some breathing space to the Sharif government as it confronts several political challenges. But there is no indication of any significant shift in the existing civil-military imbalance.

Jalaluddin S. Hussain
Quebec, Canada

Published in Dawn, December 2nd, 2016