Weight of the 5th star

Asim Munir has locked up Imran Khan, had his handmaiden Parliament mangle the Constitution, and given himself an extended tenure. But the additional jingle of that fifth star will not change facts on the ground

- SHEKHAR GUPTA

What can a Pakistan Army chief do with a fifth star that he couldn't with four? What can a Pakistan Army chief, master of all he surveys, do as Field Marshal that he couldn't as a mere General?

It's tempting to say, little more. This is just a bit more bling on his collar, cap, car, and, when he chooses, on his pulpit—a main battle tank. That must be the question also assailing his mind.

He knows that he can't have this fifth star and do nothing more with it. Should India worry?

The short answer is, India must always worry about the Pakistani army, and it does. Just that, there's this added concern and urgency with this bizarre promotion from within the "system"—or maybe from outside it, depending on where you place Shehbaz Sharif in this arrangement.

What will he do with his fifth star, only for the second time in Pakistan's and the subcontinent's history? (Our three five-stars, Cariappa, Manekshaw and Arjan Singh were handed ceremonial batons). It is a phenomenon so rare for modern militaries that today, the only example in a country of some consequence would be Egypt's Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Even the mighty Americans buried the exalted title with Marshall, MacArthur, Eisenhower and Bradley. He will surely want to do something with it. I might suggest taking a leaf out of Idi Amin's book and find some equivalent of his "Conqueror of the British Empire." But this isn't the time to be funny.

Firing his civilian government and taking over power would be so boring in Pakistan. He doesn't need that. All our politico-strategic analysis of Pakistan should henceforth be focused on this one central point. How will Field Marshal Asim Munir be different from General Asim Munir? What the General could do, we saw indicated in his speech to overseas Pakistanis on April 16 and in what happened in Pahalgam on April 22. The one promise in that speech he's yet to fulfil is, making Pakistan "a hard state."