ISLAMABAD : Nov 28,2022:. Lt Gen Asim Munir is going to resume charge as Chief of Army Staff (COAS) on November 29,2022 (Tuesday).
Outgoing army chief , Lt Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, will hand over charge of COAS to Lt Gen Asim Munir at General Headquarters (GHQ) Rawalpindi in a graceful ceremony .
President, Dr Arif Alvi, Prime Minister , Shahbaz Sharif , Defence minister , Khawaja Asif and top military brass will attend the ceremony.
Prime Minister , Shahbaz Sharif, had appointed Lt Gen Asim Munir as Pakistan’s new army chief last week.
Transfer of army command is always a source of heated debate in Pakistan ,but this time it became a big thorny issue. The political leadership made this constitutional requirement a nail bitting .controversy.
Hostile political parties made this issue related to Pakistan’s security a source of buzari discussion. At one point it seemed that the appointment of the new army chief may not be a routine matter and it may lead to further divide among political parties of Pakistan.
Pakistan Tehreek- e- Insaf (PTI) left no opportunity to make appointment of the new army chief controversial . Its chairman , Imran Khan, who had launched a countrywide campaign in the garb of ‘Haqiqi Azadi’ to blackmail the institution and the government and get appointed some particular Lt Gen as the army chief . He , finally failed in his purpose and the institution and Shahbaz government appointed Lt Gen Asim Munir as new COAS of Pakistan on the seniority basis.
Lt Gen Munir is a high level professional soldier and he enjoyed holding key positions in his care as an army officer.He held the office of the
military Intelligence and Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) . He was replaced as ISI chief after heading Pakistan’s premier spy agency for eight months for reporting corruption of former first lady, Bushra.Bibi , to her spouse and then prime minister, Imran Khan. then prime minister.
Lt Gen Asim Munir ‘s appointment as a COAS is indicative of an undeniable fact that it’s the merit which matters for appointment and promotion in Pakistan army. Incoming COAS hails from a low middle class family. His father , Syed Sarwar Munir, was a principal of a high school in Rawalpindi cantt. His elevation to the top position is a great story of Pakistan army.
Some anti Pakistan elements tried their every option to make this powerful institution controversial for fulfilling subtle agenda , but Pakistani people rejected it .
Pakistan army has suffered due to its culture of extensions in tenure of its chiefs. Right from Musharraf to Ashfaq Pervez Kayani and then to Qamar Javed Bajwa , extensions not only made the military leaders controversial, but also weakened the institution. It’s high time that the government should make the law to put an end to extension in the tenure of the army chief in the future.
