Islamambad: General Ashfaque Pervez Kayani, Pakistan’s new military chief, is regarded as a moderate liberal who enjoys the confidence of the Americans.
The 55-year-old career officer on Wednesday took control of Pakistan's 600,000-strong armed forces from Pervez Musharraf, who will be sworn in as a civilian president on Thursday after eight years of holding both posts simultaneously.
Kayani now holds a position more powerful than the presidency itself and he is considered an independent-minded officer who will put the army's interests ahead of his mentor's.
Pakistani analysts describe Kayani as a soldier's soldier, with a modern, pro-Western outlook. Although he was hand-picked by Musharraf, Kayani is likely to confine himself to military matters and remove the armed forces from day-to-day politics, they say.
This is in sharp contrast to Musharraf, who retained his top post in the military after taking over the country in a coup in 1999 but has been preoccupied with domestic and international issues.
Kayani was born in Punjab’s Jhelum district, an impoverished area in what has come to be known as the ''Martial Belt'' because of the many young men it sends to the military. He graduated from the military academy in 1971, and has commanded infantry units ranging from a platoon to an army corps.
Musharraf tapped Kayani to head a probe into two assassination attempts on the President's life in 2003. The investigation led to dozens of arrests, and Musharraf rewarded Kayani by making him chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence, before naming him to the army's No. 2 spot in October.
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In public appearances, the lanky Kayani is stone-faced and serious, with dark bags under the eyes of a hawkish face. He is known to choose his words carefully, preferring to listen rather than to speak.
In the 1990s, he served as Benazir Bhutto's military secretary during her first term as prime minister and is said to be on good terms with many in Pakistan's political elite. When Musharraf and Bhutto began negotiations on power-sharing earlier this year, Kayani was a go-between.
He also studied at the prestigious US Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and is known to have maintained close ties with his American counterparts.
In an apparent show of Washington's support for his nomination as commander of the armed forces, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte reportedly held two private meetings with Kayani during a visit to Pakistan earlier this month.
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