On April 17, while speaking at a gathering of expatriates in Islamabad, Gen. Asim Munir, Pakistan’s army chief, said “we are different from Hindus in every possible aspect of life”, invoking the two-nation theory. “No matter where you live, remember – your roots lie in a high civilisation, noble ideology, and proud identity.” He added that Kashmir “will be our jugular vein, we will not forget it, we will not leave our Kashmiri brothers in their historical struggle”. Five days later, armed terrorists gunned down 26 Indians, mostly civilian tourists, in Kashmir’s Pahalgam. The Resistance Front, which India believes is a front of Pakistan-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, immediately claimed responsibility (it later denied any role in the killing). On May 7, India launched Operation Sindoor, an air strike at terror sites inside Pakistan. Pakistan responded with more fire, escalating the showdown, leading to both sides launching missile attacks. Is this what Gen. Munir wanted?
Follow the Operation Sindoor updates – May 10, 2025
Not long before becoming the most powerful man in Pakistan, Lieutenant-General Asim Munir was the shortest-serving head of the Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI), the spy agency. He was appointed the ISI head in October 2018 by the Army chief, Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa. But eight months later, he was replaced with Lt. Gen. Faiz Hamid on the insistence of then-Prime Minister Imran Khan. The cricketer-turned-politician, who came to power a few months earlier, was still enjoying warm ties with the military establishment. While there was no official word on why the ISI chief was fired, an alleged audio clip of Aleem Khan, a former leader of Mr. Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, surfaced earlier in 2022 in which he accused the former Prime Minister of sacking Lt. Gen. Munir for “exposing corruption” of his wife, Bushra Bibi.
Rise to the top
The tables would soon turn. Mr. Khan, who fell out with the military, was ousted from power in April 2022 through a no-confidence vote. As he was trying to make a comeback through political mobilisation across the country, Lt. Gen. Munir was appointed the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS). It was hardly a secret that Mr. Khan’s PTI was steadfastly opposed to Lt. Gen. Munir’s appointment. But Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his brother and former Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, had their way in picking the successor of Gen. Bajwa, who retired on November 29, 2022, after six years at the top. “We hope that the new leadership of the armed forces of Pakistan will play its constitutional role… and stay out of the politics of domestic affairs…,” Mr. Khan’s party said in a statement about Lt. Gen. Munir’s appointment, without congratulating the new COAS.
Mr. Khan has been in jail since May 2023. And his PTI party, which was banned from contesting the February 2024 election, is in disarray. A coalition of former rivals, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Pakistan People’s Party of the Bhuttos, is in power, under Shehbaz Sharif’s premiership, with the direct blessings of Gen. Munir.
Asim Munir entered the service through the Officers Training School programme in Mangla, where he won the prestigious Sword of Honour, an honorary sword given to best performing cadets. He started his military career as a Second Lieutenant in 1986 when the military dictator Gen. Zia-ul-Haq was ruling Pakistan.
As a Brigadier, he commanded the Pakistani troops in the Northern Areas, which includes Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, under Gen. Bajwa. After Gen. Bajwa became the Army chief in November 2016, Lt. Gen. Munir rose through the ranks quickly. He was appointed the Military Intelligence Director-General in 2017 and became a (three-star) Lieutenant-General in September 2018. In the same year, Gen. Bajwa promoted him as the ISI Director-General, but his fallout with Mr. Khan cost him the job. However, Lt. Gen. Munir survived Mr. Khan’s ire. He was posted as Gujranwala Corps Commander for two years and then moved to the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi as a Quartermaster General, in charge of supplies.
The ‘devout’ soldier
Pakistani media termed him a “devout”, “clear-headed” soldier committed to protecting the interests of the military and the state. There were instances of Lt. Gen. Munir acting swiftly to shield the military and the ISI from public criticism. In July 2018, Islamabad High Court judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui criticised the ISI, saying the agency was manipulating judicial proceedings to get favourable decisions. Justice Siddiqui was sacked in October that year by President Arif Alvi on a recommendation from the Supreme Judicial Council for misconduct, a few days after Lt. Gen. Munir became the ISI chief.
Political analyst and author Shuja Nawaz writes in his book, The Battle for Pakistan, that the Supreme Court’s decision was an example of Lt. Gen. Munir’s “overreach”. Mr. Nawaz writes that Lt. Gen. Munir has the “reputation of a hardliner” and “a tough officer rooted in Islamic tradition”. He is also called a ‘Hafiz-e-Quran’, who memorised the holy book during his posting in Saudi Arabia as a Lieutenant-Colonel.
By the time Gen. Munir took over as the army chief, Pakistan-India ties had already hit a low. Lt.Gen. Munir was the ISI chief when the Pulwama attack took place in February 2019 in which 40 Indian personnel were killed. India retaliated by launching an air strike in Balakot, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Under Gen. Bajwa, Pakistan oversaw the Taliban’s return to Afghanistan, which seemed to have given a sense victory to the establishment—a sense that did not last long.
At home, the military, which has always remained the power behind the throne, faced a credibility crisis after Mr. Khan, whom Pakistani journalist Abbas Nasir calls a “cornered tiger”, was jailed and his party was taken apart. As relations with the Afghan Taliban turned sour with the Pakistani Taliban stepping up attacks in the tribal regions, the Pakistani military and Government started cracking down on Afghan refugees in the country. In Balochistan, on Gen. Munir’s watch, insurgency and political rebellion gathered momentum. Moreover, Pakistan is also teetering on mounting economic problems, with an IMF bailout package coming for help.
But for Gen. Munir, crises were opportunities for consolidating power in his hands. He has got Pakistan’s most popular politician, who challenged the establishment, right where he wanted — in prison. He has a weak federal Government in Islamabad that survives largely on his support. Even as India signalled openness to limited engagement, Gen. Munir invoked the two-nation theory and intensified rhetoric on Kashmir. In a country plagued by multiple crises and a vacuum of strong political leadership, Gen. Munir is positioning himself as the new strongman. To that end, he embraces religion, ideology and anti-India sentiment — a potent mix historically favoured by Pakistan’s military rulers. “Our religions are different, our customs are different, our traditions are different, our thoughts are different, our ambitions are different. That was the foundation of the two-nation theory that was laid there. We are two nations,” he declared on April 17. A massacre of Indians followed. And within weeks, India and Pakistan found themselves locked in an aerial conflict.
Published – May 10, 2025 06:33 pm IST
