Can Pakistan’s religious General face the coming storm?

India Today

Pakistan’s first Hafiz-e-Qur’an army chief, Asim Munir, leads with faith and force.

Transcript

00:00Allah Ta'ala نے مسلمانوں کو مایوس ہونے سے منع کیا ہے

00:04و لا تیسو من روح اللہ انہو لا یا یسو من روح اللہ الا القوم ال کافرون

00:12اس کا ترجمہ ہے اللہ کی رحمت سے مایوس نہیں ہونا

00:16اللہ کی رحمت سے صرف کافر مایوس ہوتے ہیں

00:20Early into his military rule, Field Marshal Aayyoh Khan is said to have

00:24hosted India's High Commissioner Rajeshwar Dayal in his garden and offered him a drink.

00:28Dayal apparently requested for nimbu paani because Ramzan was on.

00:32Khan shot back saying don't be ridiculous old chap have a decent whiskey.

00:36But it's Ramzan sir, Dayal replied to which journalist Karan Thapar recounted in this column

00:41the self-appointed Field Marshal shot back saying so what it's Ramzan stop being a good Hindu

00:46and become a good Muslim instead. It's true.

00:53Muhammad Ali Jinnah also was known to have a drink once in a while.

00:55Jinnah's successor Lia Katali Khan could hold his drinks so well he impressed the Americans

01:00a fair bit during a state visit to the US in 1950.

01:03General Yaaya Khan was a heavy drinker as well.

01:06His successor Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is said to have told at a rally in Lahore

01:09Haan, میں شراب پیتا ہوں لیکن عوام کا خون نہیں پیتا.

01:14Yes, I drink but not drink the people's blood.

01:16Parsi liquor baron Minochar Bhandra was made in MP 1985

01:20when Zia-ul-Haq was at his most powerful.

01:22Parsi Zulfutto had a fondness for gin and tonic

01:25while Parweez Musharraf loved his whiskey.

01:31Pakistan's Ami chief Asim Munir is a devout general who wears religion on his sleeve

01:36in a country where alcohol is banned

01:38and hence foreign liquor has to be illegally imported

01:41in large shipping containers quietly.

01:44But Asim Munir's story begins far from borders, battle maps or bhoos.

01:48He was born in Rawalpindi in 1966

01:50to a family of Sayyid Punjabis who crossed from Jalandhar at partition.

01:55His father taught school by day and preached by noon prayer.

01:58Faith framed the household.

02:00Young Asim learned Arabic letters before algebra.

02:03He would later memorize the entire Quran

02:05while posted to Saudi Arabia as a lieutenant colonel.

02:07Well done and keep it up.

02:10Munir did not enter the army through Pakistan's elite military academy.

02:13He trained at a less prestigious center

02:15but earned the Sword of Honor Award as the best cadet of 1986.

02:19They say he used to run drills with a pocket-sized Quran under his camp.

02:23And we are all well aware of the ways and means to do it.

02:28Asim Munir rose fast.

02:30First as company commander, then head of military intelligence.

02:33In 2018, he became ISI chief.

02:35But his time there was short.

02:37He briefed Prime Minister Imran Khan on corruption rumors

02:39involving Khan's wife Bushra Bibi.

02:41Khan bristled.

02:41Munir was out in eight months.

02:44ISI's shortest serving chief.

02:46He was moved to Gujaranwala, then made quartermaster general.

02:49Many would fade thanks to his demotion.

02:51But Munir did not.

02:52In 2022, just days from retirement,

02:54Shahbaz Sharif made him army chief.

02:57Khan supporters cried foul.

02:58Rawal Pindit cheered.

03:00Munir leads with scriptures as much as strategy.

03:03His speeches are sermons in uniform.

03:05Under him, the Pakistan army began calling Tariq-e-Taliban,

03:08Fithma al-Khawarij, the name of a sect that revolted against the fourth caliph during Islam's first civil war.

03:15They have their own perverted interpretation of the Islam,

03:18which is not allowed in Islam.

03:19He also put Kashmir back on center stage.

03:48Another region where forces violently trampling our human rights

03:53and muzzling voices for self-determination

03:56is Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

04:00Within Pakistan, he backed military courts to crack down on rioters protesting Imran Khan's arrest.

04:04What he did, I just want to tell you one thing.

04:08This has not been in the history of the country.

04:10Parliament, extended army tenures and supreme court seats.

04:13Critics say the military's grip grew through laws, not rules.

04:18He also redrew Pakistan's economic playbook,

04:20which engulfed Chinese investors through a military civilian council

04:23that he calls one window governance.

04:25Here, this is a song Munir's army released

04:27on the 97th anniversary of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.

04:31Chinese may have been Iron Brothers for Munir,

04:46but he also managed to get the US to release $400 million in F-16 aid.

04:51This was a thank you from Washington for Munir's army

04:53helping the US nab an ISIS-K leader.

04:56Munir is Pakistan's first Hafiz-e-Quran army chief.

04:58His officers recall him walking parade grounds at night, Quran in hand.

05:03As somebody said, Ziya Islamized, Sharaf Globalized, Munir Theologizes.

05:19What Munir leaves behind may not be peace,

05:22because across the border is a man by the name of Narendra Modi,

05:25India's Prime Minister, who is rearing to avenge

05:28the death of Indian civilians in Pahal Gham.

05:31Will it be Modi who has the final say on Munir's destiny?

05:34Tell us what you think.

05:35I'm Manisha Dikari.

05:37Muslims Fast.

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