Pakistan picks retired General to replace Sartaz Aziz as NSA

Lieutenant General Nasser Khan Janjua is set to replace Sartaz Aziz as the new Pakistan National Security Advisor, officials confirmed.

General Janjua, who has recently retired, will also accompany Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in his visit to the United States this week.

According to The Express Tribune, the decision was taken as Pakistan Army Chief General Raheel Sharif felt that Aziz had too much on his plate as he also held the foreign affairs portfolio.

A senior minister in Sharif's cabinet told the national daily that the army chief has been pushing for the appointment of Janjua as the new NSA since months, but Sharif preferred Aziz.

However, the army chief has now persuaded the prime minister that both government and military should work together, the minister added.

Janjua's appointment follows cooling relations between Pakistan and India, who were due to hold talks in August but cancelled after India said it wanted to limit the scope of the talks to Pakistan's support for militancy on Indian territory and Pakistan insisted on more wide-ranging discussions.

"General Janjua will go to Afghanistan for talks. He will go to the US And yes, when Pakistan-India (national security advisor) level talks resume, it will be General Janjua at the table," a military official told Reuters.

Two senior government officials said that Janjua was respected for his previous posting in Baluchistan, a poverty-stricken province with a raging separatist insurgency and widespread reports of human rights abuses by security forces.

Before that, Janjua was president of the National Defence University, the military's higher education institute and premier think-tank on national security matters.

Earlier, Janjua was the president of the National Defense University and has also worked on military preparedness exercise 'Azm-e-Nau', which focuses mainly on India.