Islamabad: Pakistan’s former spy master, General Asim Munir, on Tuesday assumed charge as the country’s 17th Army chief in a ceremony held in the military’s general headquarter in Rawalpindi.
The outgoing army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, who retired after two consecutive three-year terms, handed over the baton of command to Munir in the ceremony witnessed by senior civil and military officers, diplomats and public officeholders.
Munir was appointed as the chief of army staff of the country on Thursday when President Arif Alvi approved Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s recommendation to select him for the office.
He will remain army chief for a term of three years. Munir is Pakistan’s 17th army chief since 1947, while 30 prime ministers served the nation during this period.
About Asim Munir
He has served as chief of two most powerful intelligence agencies—the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Military Intelligence (MI) — but his stint as the spy chief at the ISI was the shortest ever as he was replaced by Lt Gen Faiz Hamid within eight months on the insistence of then-Prime Minister Imran Khan in 2019.
