ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Feb. 15 (UPI) -- Analysts say Pakistani army chief Ashfaq Kayani's orders to withdraw officers from civilian posts will help improve the military's image.
Kayani's move to disengage more than 300 officers from the government and politics as the country gets ready for elections Monday, an analyst told IslamOnline.net, would be a step in the right direction.
"This is a glimmer of hope and a unique incident in the checkered political history of Pakistan," Abbas Ather, a Lahore, Pakistan. senior political analyst, said.
Kayani was appointed army chief last November by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.
"General Kayani's bold and loud message has given courage to civilian bureaucracy too to refuse to bow to unconstitutional orders of the government," Ather said.
The report quoted a senior army officer as saying a group of elite officers tried to resist Kayani's reformist drive.
Analyst Sohail Iqbal in Islamabad said Kayani's decision was "timely to pull the army out of this mess."
Professor Rasul Bhaksh Rais at Lahore University of Management Sciences said the decision "is a real change that has taken place in Pakistan and it is not superficial."
Iqbal said the country also should curb the influence and interference of the intelligence agencies in politics.
