General Asim Munir has been promoted to Field Marshal – Pakistan’s highest military rank – for what looks like provoking India into hitting back. After the Pahalgam terror attack, which was carried out by Islamic terrorists trained by Pakistan’s own army and spy agency, ISI, India retaliated hard. Now, instead of facing tough questions, Munir gets a fancy new title. Does this reward give him the courage to try another reckless move and risk another blow from India?
War games
His ‘strategic brilliance’ was on display during Operation Bunyanum Marsoos (impenetrable wall or loosely translated from Urdu as ‘Operation we thought they wouldn’t hit back.’) For five days this month (May), Pakistan’s forces played a deadly game of let’s provoke a neighbour with actual missiles before the reality of India’s retaliation rudely ended the fantasy. No territory gained, nothing defended – unless you count the honour of being the first Field Marshal appointed after a 65-year drought of delusion. (Mohammed Ayub Khan was promoted to this rank in 1959.)
Medals for mayhem
By all accounts, Munir’s promotion had less to do with military merit and more with maintaining morale in Islamabad’s cabinet, not the trenches. Awarding him the baton and sash now is like giving a fire marshal’s badge to the guy who lit the forest.
The federal cabinet, in a moment of rare consensus (possibly brought on by collective heatstroke), ‘unanimously’ backed the elevation. One presumes the options were either nod along or get posted to Balochistan. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif hailed Munir for ‘defending Pakistan’s sovereignty’ – a sovereign concept in Islamabad that seems to include training terrorists and then acting shocked when things explode, quite literally.
Standards fall
For some perspective, let’s recall the only Field Marshal India ever needed: Sam Manekshaw. The man who didn’t just wear five stars – he earned them. In 1971, he led India to a decisive, clean military victory, split Pakistan in two, and oversaw the surrender of 93,000 enemy soldiers. That’s how you become a Field Marshal.
Compare that with Mullah Munir, whose main achievement seems to be triggering India into swatting back with surgical precision, and then hastily calling for a ceasefire before things got too hot. If Manekshaw commanded wars, Munir seems to command hashtags and headlines – and possibly drones that wander across the border before being shot down.
Manekshaw gave speeches that lifted a nation’s spirit. Munir gives statements that test its patience. One won the respect of allies and adversaries alike. The other wins cabinet votes from colleagues, trying not to be court-martialled by inflation and IMF debt.
Field day ahead?
Not to be left behind, the Air Chief Zaheer Ahmed Babar Sidhu’s tenure has been extended too, perhaps as a reward for keeping the jets warm while the generals played footsie on the Line of Control.
So now, with four stars turned into five, and a baton in hand, does Field Marshal Munir feel emboldened to tempt fate again? Or is this promotion just an expensive distraction from the economic wreckage and diplomatic isolation staring Pakistan in the face? Either way, India – and the world – will be watching. Again. And not kindly.
