Asim Munir
- In full:
- Syed Asim Munir Ahmed Shah
- Born:
- 1968?, Rawalpindi?, Pakistan
Who is Asim Munir?
What is Asim Munir’s background?
What has been Asim Munir’s approach as Pakistan’s chief of Army Staff?
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Asim Munir (born 1968?, Rawalpindi?, Pakistan) is a Pakistani military officer who has served as the chief of Army Staff of Pakistan since November 2022. An intelligence veteran, he has also served as the director general of Military Intelligence (MI) and the director general of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the country’s top intelligence agency. In May 2025 he was promoted to the rank of Field Marshal, the highest military rank in the country, while continuing to serve as the chief of Army Staff. He is the second person in Pakistan’s history to hold this rank after Mohammad Ayub Khan in 1959.
Early life and military career
Although Munir’s date and place of birth are unclear, media reports indicate he was born in 1968 in Rawalpindi, the location of the army’s headquarters and the capital of Pakistan from 1959 to 1969. His father was a schoolteacher and an imam (Muslim cleric). In 1986 Munir graduated from the Officers Training School at Mangla, Pakistan, where he was awarded the Sword of Honour for being the top cadet of his cohort. He was subsequently commissioned into the Pakistan Army and was posted to the Frontier Force Regiment, an infantry unit. He holds a master’s degree from the National Defence University in Islamabad, and he completed courses from military institutions in Japan and Malaysia. At one point in his career Munir served as a military attaché in Saudi Arabia. During this time he reportedly learned the Qurʾān and became a ḥāfiẓ—a title given to those who can recite every passage in the Qurʾān from memory, signifying immense spiritual achievement.
After several years of service and holding various leadership positions in the army, Munir became director general of MI in 2017. In October 2018 he was appointed director general of the ISI but was removed after about eight months, reportedly on Prime Minister Imran Khan’s insistence. The reason for his removal was not made public, although media reports speculated about tensions between the two.
In February 2019, while Munir was serving as ISI chief, tensions between India and Pakistan deteriorated after a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into an Indian Central Reserve Police Force convoy in Pulwama, Jammu and Kashmir, killing some 40 security personnel. India’s government claimed that Pakistan was responsible for overseeing the attack, alleging that the Pakistan-based group Jaish-e-Mohammed—which claimed responsibility—received support from the ISI. Pakistan denied any role in the attack. The Indian military retaliated with air strikes on what it said was a Jaish-e-Mohammed training camp in Balakot, Pakistan.
Chief of Army Staff
In November 2022 Pakistani Pres. Arif Alvi appointed Munir as the country’s chief of Army Staff, the most influential position in both security and politics in Pakistan. The appointment came amid escalating tensions with former prime minister Khan, who had been ousted via a no-confidence motion in April and was shot in the leg in an apparent assassination attempt just weeks before Munir took office. In May 2023 Khan was arrested amid a flurry of legal cases, including corruption charges, shortly after accusing a top military officer of orchestrating the November attack, an accusation that the military publicly dismissed as “highly irresponsible and baseless.”
As army chief, Munir has taken a firm, often nationalist, stance on pressing security issues. He has emphasized a security-first approach, seeking to establish Pakistan as a regional military power. Focused on countering internal and external security threats, his approach combines assertive defense diplomacy—particularly toward India and Afghanistan—with strategic neutrality and economic self-reliance.
Afghanistan
Munir has consistently blamed the Taliban government in Afghanistan for allowing Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP; a group banned in Pakistan and designated as a terrorist organization by countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States) militants to launch attacks against Pakistan from Afghan territory. Tensions between the two neighbors surged in March 2024 after several militant groups, including the TTP, launched a series of terrorist attacks on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) infrastructure, killing several Chinese nationals. In December the TTP claimed responsibility for an attack on a Pakistani military outpost in northwestern Pakistan near the country’s border with Afghanistan. The Pakistan military retaliated with air strikes against militant groups in Afghanistan. In January 2025 Munir asserted that the presence of TTP in Afghanistan was a major irritant in the two countries’ ties and called on the Taliban to end “the spread of terrorism in Pakistan from across the border.”
Balochistan
Munir has condemned the insurgency in Pakistan’s Balochistan province, where militants have pursued a separatist agenda for decades. In January 2024 Iran launched cross-border strikes against what it said were militant camps in Balochistan. Munir condemned the attacks and vowed to retaliate. A few days later Pakistan launched missile strikes on targets in Iran’s Sīstān va Balūchestān province. The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA)—which is designated as a terrorist organization by countries such as Pakistan, the United States, and the United Kingdom—was involved in attacks targeting CPEC infrastructure in 2024. Following a deadly train hijacking in March 2025 that left more than 20 passengers dead, for which the BLA claimed responsibility, Munir vowed to defeat separatist networks and facilitators operating in the region. Despite Balochistan’s location on the opposite side of Pakistan from India, Pakistan’s army claimed that India was supporting the insurgents, an allegation denied by India.
Kashmir
Munir has reiterated his country’s traditional position on Kashmir, supporting self-determination for the people of the region. He has vowed that Kashmir will one day become part of Pakistan and has referred to Kashmir as Pakistan’s “jugular vein.” In April 2025 fresh tensions between India and Pakistan erupted after a terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, killed 26 people, mostly tourists. India blamed Pakistan for facilitating the attack, citing a history of supporting insurgency in the region and its alleged support for previous terrorist attacks against Indian civilians and soldiers. Pakistan rejected the accusations, claiming the group that India accused of orchestrating the attack was defunct and calling for an independent investigation. As tensions escalated between the two countries, Munir warned that Pakistan would retaliate swiftly to any Indian military action. On May 7, 2025, India launched multiple missile strikes on what it said were militant targets in Pakistan. This led to a sharp escalation, with exchanges from both sides, before a ceasefire was eventually agreed to.