ISLAMABAD — Pakistan named a new army chief on Wednesday, promoting a veteran infantry commander to the most powerful position in the troubled nuclear-armed nation battling a homegrown Taliban insurgency.
Gen. Raheel Sharif will take over as head of the 600,000-strong army from Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, who is retiring after six years at the helm.
The change of command comes with the country facing a daunting array of challenges — the six-year Taliban campaign which has claimed thousands of lives, vexed relations with India and the winding-down of the 12-year NATO mission in neighboring Afghanistan.
Sharif, a veteran infantry commander whose elder brother won Pakistan’s highest military award for valor in the 1971 war with India, will formally take command on Thursday.
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