By Sangeeta Saxena
New Delhi. 24 November 2022. The speculation and wait were put to rest when Marriyum Aurangzeb , Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Information & Broadcasting tweeted the announcement of Pakistan’s new Army Chief. “ The Prime Minister of Pakistan Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif has decided to appoint Lt. Gen. Sahir Shamshad Mirza as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Lt. Gen. Syed Asim Munir as the Chief of the Army Staff using the constitutional authority. A summary of this has been sent to the President of Pakistan,” the tweet said.
Yesterday the Prime Minister’s office had tweeted, “The PM Office has received the summary from the Ministry of Defence with a panel of names for the appointment of Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee and Chief of the Army Staff. The Prime Minister will take a decision on the appointments as per the laid down procedure.”
For the senior most General in the country’s army who also was head of the Inter-Services Intelligence popularly known as ISI and the Directorate-General for Military Intelligence, the fact that the Prime Minister was not Imran Khan made a difference. He is going to be the first Pakistan Army Chief who is a Sword of Honour and also the only one to have been both DGMI and DG ISI.
The President has immediately promoted Lieutenant General Syed Asim Munir to the rank of General and appointed him as the Chief of Army Staff. He was to have retired on 27 November but was the senior most general after the outgoing Chief General Bajwa. Promotions and appointments are made by the President under Article 243 (a) and (b) of the Constitution, Article 48 and Sections 8a and 8d of the Pakistan Army Act, 1952. The President signed the summary received today.
He was till this morning currently the Quartermaster General of the Pakistan Army and started his military journey from the 17th course of the Officers Training School in Mangla. He was commissioned in the 23rd Battalion of the Frontier Force Regiment. He started his military career in 1986. He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General in September 2018 and was subsequently appointed as DG ISI. He previously served as Director General of Military Intelligence. He was awarded the Hilal-i-Imtiaz in March 2018. He had earlier served as the commander of the Troops deployed in the Northern Areas of Pakistan. In June 2019, Munir was replaced by Lt. Gen. Faiz Hameed as the new DG ISI. Munir was transferred and appointed as Corps Commander of XXX Corps in Gujranwala.
His alma maters have been Fuji school Japan, Command and Staff College, Quetta, Malaysian Armed Forces College, Kuala Lumpur and National Defence University, Islamabad. With a M Phil in Public Policy and Strategic Security Management from National Defence University, he was also posted as a directing staff in Command and Staff College, Quetta, brigade major of a deployed infantry brigade in Kel, general staff officer, grade-2, CGS secretariat and chief of staff of Mangla corps. Lt Gen Munir has commanded 23 Frontier Force Regiment, Infantry Brigade, remained as a force commander in Northern Areas, Gilgit and Corps Commander 30 Corps, Gujranwala.
Lt. Gen Asim Munir is going to step into the big shows of General Qamar Javed Bajwa, who retires on November 29 after two consecutive three-year terms. Gen Bajwa, 61, was appointed as the army chief in 2016 for a three-year term. He was given a three-year extension by the Imran Khan government in 2019.
Action in Islamabad has begun . Lt. General Syed Asim Munir called on President Dr. Arif Alvi, at Aiwan-e-Sadr, Islamabad. The President congratulated Syed Asim Munir on his promotion to the rank of General and his appointment as Chief of Army Staff. The appointment of Chief of Army Staff will be effective from 29 November 2022
Newly appointed Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, General Sahir Shamshad Mirza HI(M), also called on the President . The appointment of Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee will be effective from November 27, 2022.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharief tweeted, “My congratulations and best wishes to the Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee-designate Lt. General Sahir Shamshad Mirza and Chief of the Army Staff-designate Lt. General Asim Munir on their appointment.” The new Chief also visited the Prime Minister.
