Lt Gen Asim Munir, a former head of Pakistan's spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), was on Thursday named as the country's new Army chief
He is set to succeed incumbent General Qamar Javed Bajwa.
Lt Gen Munir will begin his tenure as Army Chief on November 29. He will take over the reins from outgoing General Qamar Javed Bajwa on November 29. Gen Bajwa is retiring after the end of his six-year tenure.
Information minister Marriyum Aurangzeb announced the appointment on Twitter on Thursday.
Earlier on Thursday, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif convened a cabinet meeting and chose Lt. Gen. Munir from a list of six nominees for the top military post.
Currently the QuarterMaster General at Army Headquarters, Rawalpindi, Lt. Gen. Munir has previously served as Director-General (DG) Military Intelligence (December 2016-October 2018) and simultaneously as DG-ISI from October 2018 to June 2019.
It was during Gen. Munir’s DG-ISI posting that the Pulwama attack took place in February 2019.
He has been a close aide of Gen Bajwa ever since he commanded troops in the Force Command Northern Areas as a brigadier under the outgoing army chief, who was then Commander X Corps.
Lt Gen Munir was later appointed Military Intelligence director general in early 2017, and in October next year was made the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief.
However, his stint as the top intelligence officer turned out to be the shortest ever, as he was replaced by Lt Gen Faiz Hamid within eight months, on the insistence of then-PM Imran Khan.
He was posted as Gujranwala Corps commander, a position he held for two years, before being moved to the General Headquarters as the quartermaster general.
Lt Gen Munir, started his military career in 1986, will be Pakistan’s 17th army chief. A graduate from the 17th course of the Officers Training School in Mangla, he was commissioned into the 23rd Battalion of the Frontier Force Regiment.
At present, Lt. Gen. Munir is posted as Quarter Master General at GHQ in Rawalpindi - charged with overseeing supplies for all military units.
