Pakistan’s Army Chief to visit

Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani at the invitation of his Sri Lankan counterpart arrives in Sri Lanka on Wednesday (19) on a three-day goodwill visit. General Kayani, accompanied by Begum Zahida Kayani and senior officers is scheduled to call on President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Prime Minister D M Jayaratne and Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

He will also call on Sri Lanka Air Force Chief of Defence Staff and Commander, Air Chief Marshal Roshan Goonetileke, Army Commander Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya and Navy Commander, Vice Admiral D W A S Dissanayake during his stay in Sri Lanka.

He is scheduled to address the undergraduates at Defence Services Command and Staff College (DSCSC) at Sapugaskanda and present special souvenirs to chief patron of the Command and Staff College (C & SC), Quetta, Pakistan and two other ex-graduates of the C & SC during a brief ceremony at the DSCSC after his address.

General Kayani’s slated one hour address to the DSCSC is expected to touch on a wide range of international and regional issues of military importance and his own experience as an infantry officer in the famed Baloch Regiment in the Pakistan Army.

A special Guard Turn Out and a Guard of Honour, accorded by troops of the Gajaba Regiment, salutes him on General Kayani’s arrival at the Army Headquarters premises on Thursday (20) before he calls on Army Commander Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya at the Commander’s Secretariat.

On the sidelines of the main program. Begum Zahida Kayani, the spouse of the visiting Pakistan Chief of Army Staff, is to be welcomed at a reception, organized by the Seva Vanitha Army Branch (SVAB) at its head office where a special memento is to be presented to her by the SVAB membership as a token of goodwill after she receives a brief on the SVAB roles.General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has held a number of key appointments as Deputy Military Secretary of Late Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto during her first stint as Prime Minister in 1988, General Officer Commander (GOC) 12th Infantry Division. General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani also served as the General Officer Commander (GOC) 12th Infantry Division stationed in Murree. The division is deployed all over the Line of Control and over hundreds of kilometres of mountainous terrain.

He has served as the Director General of Military Operations between December 2000 and September 2003.

General Kayani was promoted as Lieutenant General in September 2003 and given the command of the prestigious 10 Corps in Rawalpindi. 10 Corps is the largest Corps of Pakistan Army that is deployed over 1000 kms of frontage, encompassing unassailable Himalayan Mountains in the North and plains of Punjab in the South.