Asim Munir

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  Asim Munir was due to retire on the 27th of November 2022. Before that date he had filed his retirement application. The Ministry of Defense rejected it and told him the government had decided to keep him in service. Two days after the day he was meant to leave, he took command of Pakistan's army.

  Since then the Pakistani officer has gathered titles at a pace unusual even for a military that dominates its country's politics. Supporters describe a steady commander who calmed the economy and helped broker peace. Critics describe a man who has pulled authority into uniformed hands. This documentary asks how the son of Partition migrants in Rawalpindi came to stand at the centre of Pakistani power. It asks what he has done with that position at home and abroad. And it asks why one career produces such opposite verdicts.

  2122202326

• 2. Hafiz in Uniform

  ›

  In Dheri Hassanabad, a locality of Rawalpindi, Syed Sarwar Munir Shah often delivered the Friday sermon at the mosque Masjid-al-Quraish. He also served as principal of the FG Technical High School in Lalkurti. His son, Syed Asim Munir Ahmed Shah, was born in Rawalpindi in 1968. The boy's parents had left Jalandhar in East Punjab after the 1947 partition of India, stopping in Toba Tek Singh before settling in Rawalpindi. Munir has two brothers.

  Religious schooling began early at the Markazi Madrasah Dar-ul-Tajweed. Outside the classroom he played local cricket as a fast bowler.

  The 17th course of the Officers Training School at Mangla produced a cadet who won the Sword of Honour. He was commissioned into the 23rd Battalion of the Frontier Force Regiment. Later study took him far from home. He graduated from the JGSDF Camp Takigahara in Japan, then attended the Command and Staff College in Quetta and the Malaysian Armed Forces College in Kuala Lumpur. At the National Defence University in Islamabad he earned an MPhil in Public Policy and Strategic Security Management.

  Saudi Arabia is where, as a lieutenant-colonel, Munir memorised the entire Quran and became a hafiz. His family is locally known as a hafiz family, since many of its members have done the same. He is the first Pakistani army chief to have memorised the whole text. Observers regard him as religiously conservative. Away from duty he is a keen sportsman, an avid reader and a traveller, and he has given public speeches in Punjabi.

  As a brigadier, Munir commanded troops in the Force Command Northern Areas and led an infantry brigade in the Northern Areas of Pakistan. In 2016 he was appointed Director-General of Military Intelligence, and in March 2018 he received the Hilal-i-Imtiaz. On the 25th of October 2018 he became the 28th Director-General of the Inter-Services Intelligence, known as the ISI.

  That ISI tenure ended on the 16th of June 2019, after eight months, probably one of the shortest in the office's history. Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed took his place. Munir then commanded XXX Corps in Gujranwala, from the 17th of June 2019 to the 6th of October 2021. From 2021 until November 2022 he sat at GHQ as Quartermaster General of the Pakistan Army, the post he held when the top job came within reach.

  14155026

• 3. Command and Control

  ›

  Six officers were eligible to lead the army in November 2022, and Munir was selected from that pool. Informal consultations involving Nawaz Sharif, the brother of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, came first. The prime minister then forwarded the appointment summary to President Arif Alvi, who signed and approved it on the 24th of November 2022. Munir took the post as a four-star general.

  Many saw the choice as strategic. No earlier Pakistani army chief had previously run both Military Intelligence and the ISI. In December 2022, President Alvi conferred the Nishan-i-Imtiaz (Military) on him.

  The riots known as the May 9 riots gave him an early test of resolve. Afterward Munir vowed that such orchestrated incidents against the army and the nation would not be allowed again. He announced that the "legal process of trial against planners, instigators, abettors and perpetrators involved in the May 9 tragedy has commenced under Pakistan Army Act and Official Secret Act".

  In November 2024, Pakistan's parliament lengthened the service terms of the armed forces' heads, Munir included, from three years to five. The change meant he would stay in office until November 2027. According to Geo News, cited by Reuters, the Senate needed just 16 minutes to pass the amendment. Lawmakers from the PTI protested that the government had rushed the measure. Their colleague Omar Ayub accused it of "bulldozing" the legislation without debate in either house. That 2027 horizon would soon be overtaken by a larger change to Munir's office.

  2025272930

• 4. Dollars and Investment

  ›

  In September 2023, the Pakistani rupee became the best-performing currency in the world, having rebounded from record lows. The recovery followed a nationwide crackdown by the Kakar caretaker government on illegal dollar trading, unlawful money transfers and hoarding. Smuggling of wheat, sugar and Iranian petroleum products was targeted as well. As army chief, Munir played a prominent part in coordinating the state's response. He pledged to continue and to hold everyone involved accountable, security personnel included.

  That same month, Munir met business leaders and promoted the Special Investment Facilitation Council, or SIFC. He said it could attract up to $100 billion from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait and other Gulf allies. He announced task forces on economic and sectoral matters. He promised that money exchanges would be brought under taxation to make dollar and interbank rates more transparent. He also said Pakistan's grey economy was two to three times larger than its documented one.

  Multi-billion-dollar investment agreements with the UAE followed through the SIFC. They covered energy, port operations, wastewater treatment, food security, logistics, mining, aviation and banking.

  The results are contested. An assessment as of 2024 held that the SIFC had failed to attract any significant investment, though Saudi Arabia and the UAE had announced multibillion-dollar commitments through it. Pakistan's investment-to-GDP ratio, meanwhile, fell to 13.1% in the fiscal year 2023-24, its lowest level in 50 years.

  3334323154

• 5. Field Marshal and Mediator

  ›

  On the 20th of May 2025, the federal cabinet unanimously approved Munir's promotion to field marshal. Only Ayub Khan had held that rank before him in Pakistan. The government tied the honour to Operation Bunyan-um-Marsoos, which it credited with repelling Indian aggression during the 2025 India-Pakistan conflict. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif praised Munir's "exemplary courage and resolve". According to Inter-Services Public Relations, Munir dedicated the honour to the people of Pakistan, the armed forces, and especially the martyrs and veterans.

  Ayub Khan, Pakistan's first field marshal, gave up the army chief's office after his promotion. Munir did the opposite and kept his post. That makes him the only army chief to hold five-star rank, where chiefs have traditionally held four. The Hilal-i-Jur'at, Pakistan's second-highest gallantry award, also came his way in 2025.

  In June 2025, Donald Trump hosted Munir for lunch. No earlier Pakistani army chief had been received that way by a serving American president without also being head of state. Trump credited Munir with helping defuse the India-Pakistan conflict and preventing a possible nuclear confrontation. U.S. Central Command chief Michael Kurilla said Munir personally coordinated with American officials on counterterrorism, including the arrest in Kabul of the Abbey Gate bombing suspect. In October 2025, at a peace summit in Egypt, Trump called him "my favourite field marshal".

  November 2025 brought the Twenty-seventh Amendment to Pakistan's Constitution. It gave the title of field marshal lifelong legal immunity, which reached Munir through his office. The amendment also created the post of Chief of Defence Forces, replacing the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, which formally ceased to exist on the 27th of November 2025.

  On the 4th of December 2025, President Asif Ali Zardari appointed Munir as the first Chief of Defence Forces, acting on a summary from the prime minister. He holds the post alongside the army chief's office for five years. His army tenure is deemed to have begun anew on the date of the notification.

  By the 6th of April 2026, Pakistan had taken on a mediating role between Iran and the United States during the 2026 Iran war. Prime Minister Sharif tasked Munir with quiet contacts on both sides. Reports that day said he had been in touch "all night long" with U.S. Vice President JD Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi. The effort contributed to rare face-to-face talks between American and Iranian delegations in Islamabad, though no formal agreement was reached. On the 15th of April 2026, Munir travelled to Tehran to help prepare a second round of negotiations.

  3510384145

• 6. Doctrine and Rhetoric

  ›

  Commentators have given Munir's foreign policy a name: the Munir doctrine. It is described as an attempt to move beyond a choice between the United States and China as Pakistan's main partner. Its three points are a softer image for Pakistan, a role as a regional middle power and especially a security actor, and geoeconomics placed ahead of geopolitics.

  A "Pakistan first" approach sits beside it, with a defensive stance toward adversaries. After the 2024 Iran-Pakistan border skirmishes, Munir warned Iran: "You Iran cannot backstab us, and if you do, you will get a befitting reply." In October 2023, while discussing the coming deportation of illegal immigrants, including an estimated 1.7 million Afghan nationals, he stressed national security. He also said that "when it comes to the safety and security of every single Pakistani, the whole of Afghanistan can be damned." He has argued that Afghanistan did not back Pakistan's admission to the United Nations and has historically supported the insurgency in Balochistan.

  On India, Munir said: "India has not reconciled with the concept of Pakistan, then how can we reconcile with them?" On the 17th of April 2025 he endorsed the two-nation theory, saying Muslims and Hindus differ in religion, customs, traditions, thoughts and ambitions. "We are two nations, we are not one nation," he said. He repeated the argument on the 26th of April 2025 at a passing out parade at the Pakistan Military Academy.

  Joshua T. White of Johns Hopkins University told BBC Urdu that the speech was unusually provocative in tone, though consistent with Pakistan's ideological stance. He noted that it came just days before the 2025 Pahalgam attack and complicated claims of restraint. Abdul Basit of Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies saw an assertion that the military remained firmly in control. The BBC report found no direct link between the speech and the attack.

  In August 2025, at a black-tie dinner in Tampa, Florida, Munir vowed that Pakistan would never let India choke the Indus River and would destroy any dam New Delhi built. "The Indus River is not the Indians' family property," he declared. The same month he praised the Pakistani diaspora as a source of pride and dignity and called its departures a "brain gain" rather than a brain drain.

  At home, Munir presents himself as a social conservative who wants religious minorities kept safe and extremism fought. Speaking to university students, he warned against social media and Westernization. He asked: "If we want to adopt Western civilization, then why did we get rid of Hindu civilization?"

  In April 2024 Munir warned that negative propaganda and social media trolls would not deter the military. In May 2024 he said hostile forces were waging "digital terrorism" to split the armed forces from the public with lies and fake news. He also pointed to Article 19 of the Constitution, which limits free expression, including incitement to violence and efforts to undermine Pakistan's security.

  In August 2024, Munir said "Anarchy is spread through social media." The Tribune of India noted that his remarks followed online posts comparing Pakistan's situation with the fall of Sheikh Hasina's government in Bangladesh. In November 2024, state broadcaster PTV recorded him saying that unrestricted freedom of speech was degrading moral values in all societies. On the 14th of August 2024, at an Independence Day parade, he blamed foreign elements for the digital terrorism. On the 21st of August, he said the state must shield the public from social media "hysteria" and "fitna", which Dawn described as one of a series of military warnings about social media.

  5557707266

• 7. Public Image

  ›

  Pakistan's Muslim 500 recognition arrived in 2025, when The Muslim 500, a yearly publication of the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre in Amman, Jordan, named Munir among the world's 500 most influential Muslims.

  In November 2024, Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at Washington's Wilson Center, said the term extension strengthened "the most powerful post in Pakistan." He warned on X that "when a legislature is reduced to a rubber stamp, democracy is never a winner."

  Ashok Swain, a professor of peace and conflict research at Uppsala University, wrote in June 2025 about a dramatic swing in Munir's reputation. Until May 2025, he said, Munir was seen as "perhaps the most reviled Pakistani army chief since the 1971 war." Swain tied that to the crackdown on former prime minister Imran Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party. After Pakistan's military response to Indian airstrikes across the Line of Control, Swain said, Munir enjoyed "a political resurrection" as a defender of national sovereignty.

  Raza Rumi of the City University of New York read the June 2025 meeting with Donald Trump differently. In his view it validated a military-to-military channel with Washington that bypassed the civilian government and weakened democratic consolidation. He characterised the reset in ties as one where "khaki once again trumps ballot."

  After the Twenty-seventh Amendment took effect, military expert Ayesha Siddiqa said Munir had "brought control of the military under himself." She noted that the establishment's actions were more subtle than before, and that the consequences could be far-reaching. In her view, this is not a formal declaration of martial law but, in effect, an even more direct form of military rule.

  517549761

• 8. Disputed Claims

  ›

  In May 2023, Imran Khan posted on X to deny a story about why Munir left the ISI. The allegation was that Khan, then prime minister, removed him in 2019 over investigations into corruption involving Khan's wife, Bushra Bibi. Khan wrote: "This is completely false. Neither did Gen Asim show me any proof of my wife's corruption, nor did I make him resign because of that." In July 2025, Khan alleged that Munir had tried to send his wife a message through Zulfi Bukhari during that removal, and that she "firmly refused to meet."

  On the 6th of April 2024, Khan alleged a "London plan" between Munir and Nawaz Sharif that involved judges and, in his words, the theft of a democratic mandate. On the 17th of April, he blamed Munir for the imprisonment of Bushra Bibi, who had been convicted in a corruption case and in a case over the legality of her marriage to Khan. She was being held at her residence in Bani Gala, Islamabad. In July 2025 Khan went further, claiming a jail superintendent and a military officer acted on Munir's orders in the treatment he and his wife received in prison.

  In March 2025, U.S. congressmen Joe Wilson and Jimmy Panetta introduced a bipartisan bill called the Pakistan Democracy Act. It called for sanctions on Munir and others for persecuting political opponents such as Khan. Pakistan Today called the bill an exercise in futility and explained why it was unlikely to become law.

  The judiciary supplied another charge. In his 2020 book The Battle for Pakistan, Shuja Nawaz wrote that Munir was reported to have been behind the sacking of a high court judge critical of the ISI. Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, the judge in question, disputed it. He said his removal came before Munir headed the ISI and blamed former Chief Justices Saqib Nisar and Asif Saeed Khosa, along with Major General Faiz Hameed.

  On the 17th of March 2025, journalist Ahmad Noorani published a report alleging that relatives and close associates of Munir had interfered in key government appointments. The next day, about 20 armed men who identified themselves as police raided Noorani's family home and took his two brothers to an unknown location. Reporters Without Borders called the abduction likely retaliation for the reporting. The Committee to Protect Journalists said the family's court petition linked the disappearance to the report. Local police denied involvement. On the 20th of April 2025, journalist Umar Cheema claimed, citing senior police officers, that the brothers had been recovered from Katcha dacoits.

  Indian media carried several alleged remarks by Munir. ThePrint reported that he said: "We are a nuclear nation; if we think we are going down, we'll take half the world down with us." India's foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal replied that nuclear sabre-rattling is "Pakistan's stock-in-trade". Reuters reported that Pakistani security officials released only an excerpt of the speech, which did not contain the nuclear statements, and that it could not verify them independently. Pakistan's Foreign Office said the statements were distorted.

  The Times of India reported that Munir said he had authorised a social media post pairing a Quranic verse with a picture of Mukesh Ambani, and that he warned Pakistan would target India's Jamnagar Refinery in a future conflict. NDTV reported a different remark, comparing India to a shining Mercedes and Pakistan to a dump truck full of gravel.

  In August 2025, Daily Jang editor Suhail Warraich claimed that Munir, during a stopover in Brussels, said political reconciliation was possible only after a sincere apology. He did not say whom the apology should come from, and the remark was read as possibly aimed at the PTI. The ISPR director-general, Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, later denied that Munir had given any interview or made any political statement. He said Munir had not mentioned the PTI.

  7781858691