The all-powerful general on January 25 clarified he would retire as per schedule amid a clamour for his extension. The announcement must have been music to Nawaz's ears as Raheel has overshadowed him with action against the Taliban.
Once bitten, twice shy Nawaz has mellowed down and been more accommodative in accepting military's role in key policy-making areas in his third term. He lost power twice in the 1990s thanks to tussles with generals for civilian supremacy, ironically after beginning his career as military ruler Zia-ul-Haq's protege.
Nawaz's problems with the establishment started during his first tenure in 1990 when Azamgarh-born Mirza Aslam Beg was the army chief. Beg is widely-believed to have bankrolled Nawaz's first national election success against Benazir Bhutto. But he fell out of favour for his ambivalence over the Gulf war even as Pakistan deployed its troops and supported the West. Beg called for "strategic defiance" of the US as he, according to journalist Najam Sethi, played "to an antiAmerican gallery for potential coup-making reasons"'. Nawaz nixed Beg's attempts to get an extension in 1991
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