Dawood Ibrahim
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General Bajwa’s sons, Saad and Ali, spoke publicly for the first time in an interview to Newsweek Pakistan, after their father became Pakistan’s new Army chief on November 29.
The resolve to go after terrorists came, by the sons’ account, on the night of December 16, 2014, when armed men launched a bomb and gun assault on Peshawar’s Army Public School, killing over a 100 children. The family remembers Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Bajwa returning home “shaken and visibly upset.” “He kept saying over and over, ‘This has to be the end. There must be consensus against terrorism; it is the biggest threat to Pakistan’s existence,” Saad Siddique Bajwa tells Newsweek. The general, reveal his sons, has pictures of the slain schoolchildren framed in his office as a constant reminder of the battle he is determined to win.
Pakistan Army Chief General Bajwa picture as 2nd Lieutenant, October 1980
COAS General Bajwa, 56, inherits from his predecessor General (retired) Raheel Sharif the world’s sixth largest army. Now in office, he is expected to continue Operation Zarb-e-Azb, launched in Pakistan’s northern areas to weed out terrorists. A parallel operation is ongoing in Karachi, the city of the COAS’s birth, against terrorism and terrorism-linked corruption.
In the article, his sons narrate the day General Bajwa found out he will soon be on top of the military’s power pyramid. On November 26, they say, he was at the graveyard where his mother and mother-in-law are buried, when the Prime Minister called on him. The general changed into his uniform and left a house buzzing with people. Shortly after, the media was agog with the news that he had been named the COAS-designate.
The general, youngest of five siblings, was first commissioned to the Armed forces in 1980. His last stint was as inspector-general for training and evaluation at the GHQ in Rawalpindi.
General Bajwa with his wife and two sons, 1992.
General Bajwa with his wife, Ayesha Amjad, November 2016.\nCourtesy: Newsweek
General Bajwa with his wife and two sons, 1992. Courtesy Newsweek
General Bajwa with his wife, Ayesha Amjad, November 2016. Courtesy: Newsweek
“Every Army chief has had his own legacy or way of doing things,” says his son Saad, a barrister in Islamabad, “our father believes in the supremacy of the Constitution. He always says he wants the Pakistan [that the] Quaid-e-Azam envisioned, a Pakistan where institutions are more important than individuals.”
He is said to have interacted extensively with an Indian officer in 2007, when part of the UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Bajwa’s would report directly to Gen. Bikram Singh, the man who would go on to become India’s Army chief. Ali says his father remembers the Indian solider to have been “a very professional and fair commander.”
General Bajwa at Command and Staff College, Quetta as IGT&E, March 2016
When on a sabbatical from military drills, a younger Bajwa enjoyed playing cricket and crooning to Noor Jehan. He admires Viv Richards and Javed Miandad. In between the predictable stories of valor and virtue, the sons admit in the article that their father is unforgiving about one thing – irresponsibility.
https://m.geo.tv/#category|latest-news|p124880
@Farah Sohail @tps77
The resolve to go after terrorists came, by the sons’ account, on the night of December 16, 2014, when armed men launched a bomb and gun assault on Peshawar’s Army Public School, killing over a 100 children. The family remembers Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Bajwa returning home “shaken and visibly upset.” “He kept saying over and over, ‘This has to be the end. There must be consensus against terrorism; it is the biggest threat to Pakistan’s existence,” Saad Siddique Bajwa tells Newsweek. The general, reveal his sons, has pictures of the slain schoolchildren framed in his office as a constant reminder of the battle he is determined to win.
Pakistan Army Chief General Bajwa picture as 2nd Lieutenant, October 1980
COAS General Bajwa, 56, inherits from his predecessor General (retired) Raheel Sharif the world’s sixth largest army. Now in office, he is expected to continue Operation Zarb-e-Azb, launched in Pakistan’s northern areas to weed out terrorists. A parallel operation is ongoing in Karachi, the city of the COAS’s birth, against terrorism and terrorism-linked corruption.
In the article, his sons narrate the day General Bajwa found out he will soon be on top of the military’s power pyramid. On November 26, they say, he was at the graveyard where his mother and mother-in-law are buried, when the Prime Minister called on him. The general changed into his uniform and left a house buzzing with people. Shortly after, the media was agog with the news that he had been named the COAS-designate.
The general, youngest of five siblings, was first commissioned to the Armed forces in 1980. His last stint was as inspector-general for training and evaluation at the GHQ in Rawalpindi.
General Bajwa with his wife and two sons, 1992.
General Bajwa with his wife, Ayesha Amjad, November 2016.\nCourtesy: Newsweek
General Bajwa with his wife and two sons, 1992. Courtesy Newsweek
General Bajwa with his wife, Ayesha Amjad, November 2016. Courtesy: Newsweek
“Every Army chief has had his own legacy or way of doing things,” says his son Saad, a barrister in Islamabad, “our father believes in the supremacy of the Constitution. He always says he wants the Pakistan [that the] Quaid-e-Azam envisioned, a Pakistan where institutions are more important than individuals.”
He is said to have interacted extensively with an Indian officer in 2007, when part of the UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Bajwa’s would report directly to Gen. Bikram Singh, the man who would go on to become India’s Army chief. Ali says his father remembers the Indian solider to have been “a very professional and fair commander.”
General Bajwa at Command and Staff College, Quetta as IGT&E, March 2016
When on a sabbatical from military drills, a younger Bajwa enjoyed playing cricket and crooning to Noor Jehan. He admires Viv Richards and Javed Miandad. In between the predictable stories of valor and virtue, the sons admit in the article that their father is unforgiving about one thing – irresponsibility.
https://m.geo.tv/#category|latest-news|p124880
@Farah Sohail @tps77
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