11-18-2007, 03:41 AM
<b>Pakistan military's No. 2 seen as poker-faced, apolitical figure</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN -- While Gen. Pervez Musharraf was preparing this month to issue a sweeping emergency decree, his No. 2 in the military was nowhere to be seen in the corridors of power.
Instead, Gen. Ashfaq Kiani was far afield, visiting Pakistani troops engaged in a difficult and demoralizing struggle with Islamic insurgents in the jagged hills along the Afghan border.
.......
Tall and taciturn, a chain smoker through his adult life, Kiani rose through the ranks from a humble background -- <b>unusual in an army whose senior officers are mostly the sons of the military aristocracy.</b>
Yet he is a product of military tradition, <b>hailing from a powerful clan in Punjab province, a longtime army recruiting hub.</b>
Among his army mentors as he ascended to the rank of infantry commander was Musharraf, an ex-commando a decade his senior. <b>But Kiani was not part of the general's inner circle of senior officers who helped him seize power in 1999</b>.
Still, Kiani's close ties to Musharraf were apparent in 2003, when he was made corps commander in Rawalpindi, the seat of army headquarters just outside the capital, Islamabad. <b>In the past, that job had been a springboard for staging coups, so the appointment demonstrated the general's trust in him</b>
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The following year, Kiani became head of the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan's spy agency, notorious for its ties with the Taliban. By the time of his tenure, the agency's senior ranks had largely been purged of insurgent sympathizers, <b>but under Kiani's watch, the militants did regain strength and territory in Pakistan's semiautonomous tribal areas.</b>
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To U.S. military officials, Kiani is something of a known quantity. He has studied at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Ft. Leavenworth in Kansas. <b>He has met with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and is acquainted with senior staff at the Pentagon and CIA.</b>
...
"If the army thinks Musharraf has to go, I think Kiani will act against him," said Sajjan Gohel of the Asia-Pacific Foundation, a London-based think tank. "In Pakistani politics, the person you trust most is often the one who will betray you."
<b>According to accounts by those present at the clamorous meeting in March, Kiani was the only officer in the room who said absolutely nothing.</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Instead, Gen. Ashfaq Kiani was far afield, visiting Pakistani troops engaged in a difficult and demoralizing struggle with Islamic insurgents in the jagged hills along the Afghan border.
.......
Tall and taciturn, a chain smoker through his adult life, Kiani rose through the ranks from a humble background -- <b>unusual in an army whose senior officers are mostly the sons of the military aristocracy.</b>
Yet he is a product of military tradition, <b>hailing from a powerful clan in Punjab province, a longtime army recruiting hub.</b>
Among his army mentors as he ascended to the rank of infantry commander was Musharraf, an ex-commando a decade his senior. <b>But Kiani was not part of the general's inner circle of senior officers who helped him seize power in 1999</b>.
Still, Kiani's close ties to Musharraf were apparent in 2003, when he was made corps commander in Rawalpindi, the seat of army headquarters just outside the capital, Islamabad. <b>In the past, that job had been a springboard for staging coups, so the appointment demonstrated the general's trust in him</b>
......
The following year, Kiani became head of the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan's spy agency, notorious for its ties with the Taliban. By the time of his tenure, the agency's senior ranks had largely been purged of insurgent sympathizers, <b>but under Kiani's watch, the militants did regain strength and territory in Pakistan's semiautonomous tribal areas.</b>
.....
To U.S. military officials, Kiani is something of a known quantity. He has studied at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Ft. Leavenworth in Kansas. <b>He has met with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and is acquainted with senior staff at the Pentagon and CIA.</b>
...
"If the army thinks Musharraf has to go, I think Kiani will act against him," said Sajjan Gohel of the Asia-Pacific Foundation, a London-based think tank. "In Pakistani politics, the person you trust most is often the one who will betray you."
<b>According to accounts by those present at the clamorous meeting in March, Kiani was the only officer in the room who said absolutely nothing.</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->