Why Pakistan promoted Asim Munir after Operation Sindoor humiliation

When Pakistan bestowed the honorary rank of field marshal on its army chief Asim Munir, it may have come as a surprise to many who thought Pakistan had finally been delivered a kick in the guts by Operation Sindoor for its relentless use of cross-border terrorism against India.However, to others who have followed the commentary in Pakistani media and noticed how a nationalistic frenzy has been whipped up in the country since May 10 — the day President Donald Trump waded into the conflict, claiming he had brokered a ceasefire – it was only to be expected.Aware of the pitfalls of any military humiliation at the hands of India, the army and the civilian establishment have continued to circle the wagons against any possible criticism of the reverses suffered from Indian action. This move to honour Munir with a military rank inherited from the British for extraordinary service in wartime is a part of the same exercise to keep up the pretence of a victory over India.

Former Indian high commissioner to Pakistan G Parthasarathy says Munir’s promotion is the brainwave of an army chief who nurses pathological hatred for India and whose operation against India ended in a fiasco. “This entire episode of attack on India reveals yet again that while other countries have an army, in Pakistan the army has a country,” he said.Munir is only the second army chief in Pakistan’s history to be named field marshal after Ayub Khan, who had declared himself one after the 1958 military coup. A lackey civilian establishment needed little prodding to confer the ‘five-star’ rank on the chief of army staff. Unlike Khan, who became president, Munir will continue to serve as the army chief.There’s little doubt, at least in Pakistan’s imagination, that Munir has emerged stronger from the crisis. He has been feted by a vast majority of the Pakistani people and the media for standing up to India till help arrived in the form of the ceasefire that Trump claimed to have negotiated, something India claims is not true. That is also the reason why Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif has sought to claim credit for Munir’s promotion, saying it was his decision alone to elevate him to the rank of field marshal.Another former Indian high commissioner to Pakistan, Sharat Sabharwal, says the decision to honour Munir for what Islamabad described as his “high strategy and courageous leadership” against India reflects the hold that he enjoys on power now as a result of the recent military exchanges with India.“It shows that the national sentiment is consolidated around the army,” says Sabharwal, adding that his main powers will continue to be drawn from his position as the chief of army staff.Munir may have consolidated his position for now but no amount of obfuscation or the spin Pakistan gave to the events of May 10 will help him or Shehbaz wish away the complex web of internal and external challenges Pakistan is faced with. A fragile economy, unsuccessful counter-insurgency operations against groups like Pakistan Taliban and Balochistan Liberation Army, collapse of ties with Afghanistan, fuelling of political instability by the army with the ousting of Imran Khan and rift within the army – one of the reasons why Munir perhaps provoked the conflict with India – will likely prove a tough row to hoe even for the resurgent army chief.Munir will also know that the global community now has little patience left for Pakistan’s ‘good terrorist-bad terrorist’ tool kit, and efforts to play on the fears in the West of a nuclear conflict with India may not find much traction. Also, while China has welcomed the ceasefire, it’s unlikely to be pleased with the way Pakistan sought US intervention to end the conflict with India and later lauded Trump’s role.On top of all that, Munir now also has to contend with what India calls the new normal – Indian armed forces will actively seek out and eliminate terrorists, who target India, in both POK and the mainland, without giving in to any nuclear blackmail or global outcry. Munir will know that if he decides to walk up to the brink, India will be happy to give him company.India effectively holds Munir responsible for the Pahalgam attack, as evident from the link foreign secretary Vikram Misri drew between the religious profiling of the victims and his April 16 speech, in which the jihadi general – a sobriquet he earned for his religious zealotry – stressed the two-nation theory and “stark differences between Hindus and Muslims”. In candidness, and deep-seated antipathy for India, Munir’s remarks were next only to comments by one of his illustrious predecessors, General Pervez Musharraf, who, in 1999, said that Pakistan would continue to wage a low-intensity conflict with India even if the Kashmir issue was resolved.That perhaps explains why Pakistan has continued to use terrorism as an instrument of policy against India and the improbability of any change even if a serious attempt is made to resolve outstanding issues.As Sabharwal says, Munir is a hardliner on India and the Indian govt will closely follow how strong his hold on power remains. With a pliable govt in place, Munir is already the de facto ruler of the country but that he may be priming himself for a bigger role – like following in Musharraf’s steps – is not ruled out. The challenge for India will be to keep the focus internationally on cross-border terrorism as that’s the surest way of blunting Pakistan’s military-nuclear narrative that the West has a tendency of buying into.