Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf installed a loyalist and former spymaster as deputy army chief yesterday, handpicking his successor as leader of the military in a key step to restoring civilian rule.
General Ashfaq Kiyani, who has helped spearhead the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaeda and represented the president in crunch political negotiations, took up the position yesterday with a show of military pomp.
Kiyani, the former head of the Inter-Services Intelligence, received a guard of honor as he arrived at army headquarters in Rawalpindi, a military statement said.
"A ceremony was held at the general headquarters to formally welcome the newly appointed vice chief of army staff on assuming charge of the new appointment," a military statement said.
"A smartly turned out contingent of the Pakistan army presented a guard of honor to the vice chief of army staff," it said.
The army has described Kiyani as the designated successor to Musharraf, who has been army chief since the year before he seized power in a bloodless coup in October 1999.
Since then Musharraf has come under mounting pressure from his backers in Washington and the international community for a return to democratic rule.
The chain-smoking Kiyani has formed good relations with the US amid the Pakistani military's campaign to drive al-Qaeda and Taliban rebels from the troubled tribal belt.
Meanwhile, the death toll from fierce battles between militants and soldiers in a suspected al-Qaeda stronghold in the northwest has risen to 80, the army said yesterday.
Army spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad said about 60 suspected militants and 20 soldiers died in two major clashes on Sunday in North Waziristan -- 10 more guerrillas that he announced on Sunday.
A security official in Miran Shah, the region's main town, said army helicopters and jets bombarded militant positions in several villages in the region.
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