Raheel Sharif

General Raheel Sharif HI
راحیل شریف
File:GenRaheelSharif.jpg
Chief of Army Staff
Incumbent
Assumed office 29 November 2013
President	Mamnoon Hussain
Prime Minister	Nawaz Sharif
Preceded by	Ashfaq Pervaiz Kayani
Inspector General Training and Evaluation at the General Headquarters
Personal details
Born	(1956-06-16) 16 June 1956 Quetta, Balochistan, Pakistan
Alma mater	Government College Lahore Pakistan Military Academy Bundeswehr University Munich National Defense University Canadian Army Command and Staff College Royal College of Defense Studies
Military service
Allegiance	Pakistan
Branch/service	Pakistan Army
Years of service	October 1976 – Present
Rank	General
Commands	Commander, Gujranwala XXX Corps

General Raheel Sharif (Urdu/Template:Lang-pnb; born 16 June 1956) is the 15th and current Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army.

Early life, family and education

Sharif was born on 16 June 1956 in Quetta to a Muslim Rajput Bhatti family of prominent military background. His roots are in the town of Kunjah in the Gujrat District of Punjab province. His father, Major Muhammad Sharif Bhatti, was a retired major. He is the younger brother of Major Shabbir Sharif who fought in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 and received the Nishan-e-Haider posthumously. He is also the nephew of Major Raja Aziz Bhatti, another Nishan-i-Haider recipient, who fought in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965. Despite sharing a common surname, and being of the same origin (Kashmiri) he is not directly related to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. He is married and has three children, which include two sons and a daughter.

Military service

Sharif received his formal education from the Government College in Lahore and then attended the Pakistan Military Academy for military education. After graduation, he was commissioned into the 6th battalion of the Frontier Force Regiment in 1976. During his early years, he performed duties in an infantry brigade in Gilgit and also served as an adjutant to the Pakistan Military Academy. Over the years, he rose up in the military ranks and was given command of the 11th Infantry Division in Lahore by General Pervez Musharraf.

As a brigadier, he commanded two infantry brigades. Sharif has also been the General Officer Commander of an infantry division and the Commandant of the Pakistan Military Academy. Following his promotion as a Lieutenant General, Sharif served for two years as a Corps Commander until taking over as an Inspector General for Training and Evaluation under which he was involved in overseeing training in the Pakistan Army.

Role in War on Terror

In both the positions held, his role was primarily to deal with the evaluation of military doctrines and war strategies with a view to shaping future training programs. He played a key role in presiding over a change of military thinking, under which the focus of the army's work is geared more towards carrying out counter-insurgency operations against Taliban militants. Since 2007, General Sharif has been a key element in General Kayani's recent military policy readjustments; helping the army develop new doctrines for Counter-insurgency operations that Pakistan has been forced to focus on since its engagements with militants. That new shift saw him oversee a program where the army's front-line and backbone infantry troops have essentially been re-trained entirely, both in the field and in training schools, evolving the army from its conventional role to a more diversified counter-terror capacity. Under General Sharif, every army unit now undergoes a unique 'Counter-insurgency Pre-Induction Training', much like US troops do, before being deployed in culturally sensitive and violent western forward locations. Sharif has also rejuvenated the army's 'feeder' institutions through enhancing and even rebuilding the entire chain of military colleges that run throughout the country.

Sharif has played a big role in convincing other senior officers in the Army that the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and assorted militants inside Pakistan are just as big a threat as India. However, General Sharif stressed that all possible threats will be dealt with accordingly, be it internal or external.

Chief of Army Staff

On 27 November 2013, Sharif was appointed as the 15th Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. According to sources, General Sharif is reputedly a professional soldier and is uninterested in politics. But observers have grumbled that General Sharif was elevated over two more senior generals, despite a commitment that seniority in the army's ranks would be respected. However, analysts have pointed out that, because of the precarious situation in North-West Pakistan, General Sharif was the best man to take over from the helms of General Kayani.