Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, demonstrated a capacity for negotiating with foreign leaders that astounded many veteran politicians.
Pakistan’s Field Marshal Asim Munir has successfully won over the US administration at the highest level. The White House lunch in June with Pakistan’s Field Marshal Asim Munir marked the first time a Pakistani military leader had a one-on-one meeting with the US President.
Pakistan has already received the much-needed approval from the US Department of Defence to purchase AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles and F-16 upgrade packages for its ageing F-16 Fighting Falcons.
Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff, Field Marshal Asim Munir, is receiving a flurry of praise at home and abroad after his latest high-profile visit to Washington, which was his third in less than six months. After decades of isolation, the country has finally found a good book with Uncle Sam.
A photograph from the Oval Office showing Munir and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif presenting a box of Pakistan’s rare earth minerals to US President Donald Trump has been praised back home in Pakistan.
Pakistan’s support for Trump’s peace plan, details of a reported defence deal with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and Munir conducting diplomatic outreach, are typically reserved for civilian leaders. There is no question that Pakistan’s army chief Field Marshall Asim Munir became a statesman.
the US and Pakistan announced new cooperation agreements, including mineral exports and refinery projects with American and European firms. At the same time, the government praised the deals as a path to economic revival and strategic leverage over the US foreign policy.
Pakistan also offered the US a naval base and seaport in proximity to Iran and Afghanistan.
The image of an army chief pitching minerals to Trump is symbolic of how Pakistan’s institutions have been inverted, instead of strengthening democracy and inviting foreign investment.
Military conflict escalated between India and Pakistan in May this year after the launch of Operation Sindoor, as part of which India struck terror targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The military action was to avenge the killing of 26 civilians in the Pahalgam terrorist attack on April 22.
At the height of the military conflict, a ceasefire was announced on May 10. Trump has, on and off, taken credit for the ceasefire, claiming that he should get the Nobel Prize for preventing wars.
“India and Pakistan were going at it. I called them both… They had just shot down seven planes… I said, if you do this, there’s not going to be any trade, and I stopped the war. It was raging for four days,” Trump said in his latest claim from the White House.
He further said that the Prime Minister and army chief were in the US, as he termed Munir as “a very important guy in Pakistan”. “I didn’t even realise it was as beautiful as he said it. He told a group of people with us that this man saved millions of lives by preventing the war from happening. That war was going to get very bad…” he said.
The statement comes as Trump noted his success with the Gaza peace plan. “Yesterday, we might have settled the biggest of them all. Although I’m not sure… Hamas has to agree. If they don’t, it will be very tough on them… All of the Arab nations, Muslim nations, have agreed. Israel has agreed. It’s an amazing thing,” he said.
Earlier on Monday, while announcing the Gaza peace plan with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said, “The Prime Minister and the Field Marshal of Pakistan were with us right from the beginning. Incredible. In fact, they have just issued a statement affirming their full commitment to this pact… They back this 100%.”
Trump compared the potential peace settlement in Gaza to his previous claims of diplomatic interventions, including India-Pakistan, noting, “I’ve settled so many wars… Pakistan and India were very big. Both nuclear powers. I settled that. But yesterday could be the settlement in the Middle East. That hasn’t happened for 3,000 years.”
Even as Trump repeatedly takes credit, India has consistently denied third party intervention in reaching the ceasefire with Pakistan. At the United Nations General Assembly last week, India maintained that no third party was involved in the truce as Pakistan’s military “pleaded” with it for a cessation of hostilities.
Why did Army Chief Gen Waker-Uz-Zaman fail to receive a meeting with President Trump?
Instead of focusing on bringing accountability and strengthening the armed forces, Army Chief Gen Waker-Uz-Zaman is busy offering unsolicited views on an election timeline, domestic politics and making money through the army-controlled conglomerate Sena Kalyan Shansta.
In late September, Bangladesh’s army chief, General Waker-Uz-Zaman, did something unprecedented — he gave an interview to the press and discussed politics. Unlike its Pakistani counterparts, Bangladesh’s generals do not speak to the media or release press briefings through the ISPR, instead advising civilians on how to run the country. At the same time, Zaman avoids discussing army officers allegedly stealing billions from the defence budget.
Former dictator Sheikh Hasina indoctrinated the Bangladesh military into corrupt businesses and money laundering activities to stay in power. Army Chief Gen Waker-Uz-Zaman kept the tradition of this corruption instead of strengthening the military to deter India and Myanmar. The weak Bangladesh military, focused on the UN peacekeeping mission in Africa, failed to protect Bangladesh’s land, airspace, and maritime interests.
Zaman is married to the cousin of the deposed Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. He was only 22 days into his role as army chief when the most significant event in the protest against Hasina took place, forcing Hasina to flee the country.
Bangladesh’s border with Myanmar witnessed heavy clashes between the ethnic Arakan Army (AA) of Burma’s Rakhine State and the Myanmar military. For about a week, Bangladesh’s Saint Martin’s Island was cut off from the mainland.
A Rakhine Buddhist armed organisation, the Arakan Army (AA), which comprises around 20,000 fighters, is reportedly acquiring Chinese arms through the Wa State Army. This Burmese rebel group also serves as a proxy for China.
The AA is also a part of the Three Brotherhood Alliance, which has close relations with China; in January this year, China brokered a ceasefire between the rebels and the military junta. The fact that the China-backed AA has overrun a huge area of Rakhine State that borders Bangladesh and India is a significant security concern for both countries.
For Bangladesh, the situation in Rakhine State is even more ominous. The AA is accused of killing Rohingya civilians, a million of whom have already taken refuge in Bangladesh. As the situation in Rakhine worsens, another exodus to Bangladesh cannot be ruled out.
The Weak Bangladesh military watches as the Arakan Army and the Myanmar army bomb inside Bangladesh and kill civilians. The Bangladesh Army is reportedly involved in various businesses, including shoe manufacturing and the taxi industry.
More importantly, the Bangladesh Army is in urgent need of reform and modern weaponry. Army officials are said to have been involved in torture and extrajudicial killings. The involvement of the army in enforced disappearances and especially in the shooting of unarmed civilians during the recent anti-Hasina protests is a matter of grave concern.
Calls for punishing human rights abusers in the army have grown, and Zaman did promise to look into the matter. But weeks later, the general has done nothing to punish those who shot at the peaceful protestors.
The presence of torture cells inside Dhaka Cantonment and the alleged involvement of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence tells us that a section of the armed forces was involved in crimes against humanity. Zaman has to look into that as well.
That reputation is, in fact, at stake now, as Zaman has not taken any visible action to bring the perpetrators of human rights abuses to book. This inability will understandably raise questions about the army’s commitment to upholding and preserving human rights both at home and abroad.
Instead of advising civilian administration, General Zaman should focus on his responsibilities of rebuilding the Bangladesh military from this dismal and paralysed condition.
Sheikh Hasina indoctrinated the Bangladesh military into the Indian orbit, and most of the senior officers were trained in India.
Most of the current serving military officers are brainwashed by Hasina that Bangladesh can only buy arms from either Russia or India, and some arms from China when China attach arms procurement strings to infrastructure project funds.
Zaman is not Munir and had no plan to visit the USA and strengthen security cooperation between the US and Bangladesh.
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