Pakistan's Path to Martial Perdition

SUCCESS has many fathers. Failure, we are told, is an orphan. But in Pakistan, failure is pampered like a princeling. In this fractured federation of follies, where generals govern and civilians cower, General Syed Asim Munir's elevation to field marshal is less a medal of merit and more a coronation of chaos.

- PRABHU CHAWLA

It marks not just the military's muscle-flexing, but its full-fledged monopoly over Pakistan's political, spiritual and strategic soul.

Munir's field marshal title, sanctioned by Shehbaz Sharif's cabinet, came in the wake of India's Operation Sindoor—a determined and successful strike on terror camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Pakistani air bases. The limp response—Operation Bunyan-um-Marsoos—was a blustering ballet of bombs and blunders, ending with an alleged US-brokered ceasefire that underscored Pakistan's strategic subservience. Munir's elevation was, thus, less about battlefield brilliance than about bolstering a shaky regime and soothing military egos.

The promotion tells the tale of Pakistan's field marshals. It explains Munir's zealous ideology and the army's relentless subversion of civilian rule. It also amplifies belligerent posturing against India. It raises serious questions about the political and strategic fallout of his promotion, his delicate rapport with the American establishment, and the stark economic chasm between a faltering Pakistan and a rising India.

This rare five-star flourish—last seen in 1959, when Ayub Khan grandly gifted himself the title—isn't merely ceremonial. It's symbolic of a state spiralling into subservience under khaki-clad kings. And yet, instead of accountability, Munir gets accolades. Instead of reflection, rank inflation. The general's elevation wasn't earned on battlefields—it was baked in backrooms by a compromised civilian cabinet desperate to defer to its khaki kingmaker.

His rise reinforces a grim pattern. Since 1947, Pakistan has endured dictators disguised as deliverers—Yahya, Zia, Musharraf. Munir is the latest in this lineage of lords in lanyards, a general who jails opponents, gags media, and governs through ghost laws. The 2025 Supreme Court ruling allowing military trials for civilians didn't just bend the constitution, it bludgeoned it.