predicted by the media and the analysts to be promoted to the four-star assignments of either vice chief of army staff or chairman joint chiefs. These predictions were true, when in October 2007, he was made the Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Upon General P. Musharraf's retirement from the army, Majid's appointment to four star rank was highly speculated in the media and military science circles. As early as in August and the following month, Majid was initially in the race to be appointed as chief of army staff. In military science circles, Majid was known to be a professional soldier and though, his closeness to Musharraf become a liability in country's political science circles. On 3 October 2007, the media in Pakistan announced that Lieutenant-General Tariq Majid was promoted to four-star rank, and his nomination to succeed general Ehsan-ul-Haq was already approved by President Musharraf. On 8 October 2007, he was sworn as chairman joint chiefs and took over the operations of Joint Staff Headquarters (JS HQ). Upon taking the JS HQ secretariat, Majid became the only officer from the Baloch Regiment after Rahimuddin Khan to ascend to chairman joint chiefs. At the time of promotion, Tariq Majid was fourth on the seniority list. Lieutenant Generals Khalid Kidwai, Ashfaq Parvez Kayani (who was also promoted as four-star and made VCOAS), and Malik Arif Hayat were all senior to him, all of whom stood superseded and sought retirement. On race to the promotion to this four-star assignment, lieutenant-General Khalid Kidwai was already on a year's extension and another lieutenant-general Malik Arif Hayat had never commanded a corps thus virtually taking him out of the race for the top two slots in the army. Less than a two weeks of being chairman joint chiefs, a suicide attack was struck on Majid when a suicide bomber struck a police checkpoint in the high security zone of Rawalpindi on October 30. It was carried out less than a kilometer from President General Pervez Musharraf's camp office, killing seven people, three of them policemen, and injuring 31 others. The blast splattered check post of General Tariq Majid's official residence. During the armed escalations with India, Majid served as the top military adviser to government and it was widely circulated that he, together with chiefs of navy, army and air force, had advised the president Asif Ali Zardari