Pakistan Army on Friday appointed Lt Gen Nadeem Raza as new Chief of General Staff (CGS) amidst a major reshuffle in which almost one-third of the corps commanders were replaced.
The appointments announced on Friday and the upcoming changes together mean that a total of 22 positions of lieutenant generals will be affected.
According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the transfers and postings saw Lieutenant General Raza replace Lieutenant General Bilal Akbar, who has now been appointed as Rawalpindi 10 Corps commander.
Lt Gen Shahid Baig Mirza has been appointed as inspector general, Communications and IT (IG C&IT); and Lt Gen Abdullah Dogar as chairman Heavy Industries Taxila (HIT).
Lt Gen Humayun Aziz, Lt Gen Muhammad Naeem Ashraf and Lt Gen Bilal Akbar have been appointed as commanders of Karachi Corps, Multan Corps and Rawalpindi Corps, respectively.
It should be noted that the next phase of changes, which will be due in about five weeks, will include important appointments of the new director general of the Inter-Services Intelligence and the Peshawar corps commander.
Current ISI chief Lt Gen Naveed Mukhtar and 11 Corps (Peshawar) Commander Lt Gen Nazir Butt will be among the five retiring three-star generals. The other three are Commander of Army Strategic Force Command Lt Gen Mian Muhammad Hilal Hussain, Military Secretary at the GHQ Lt Gen Ghayur Mahmood and Training and Evaluation Inspector General Lt Gen Hidayatur Rehman.