Shujja Nawaz About Asim Munir, New Chief Of Army Staff Pak.

COAS Asim Muneer by Suja Nawaz , The Battle for Pakistan

"He was succeeded by the former DG of Military Intelligence at army headquarters, Lt. Gen. Asim Munir. He had also served in the Northern Areas of Pakistan and had the reputation of being a tough officer

roo- ted in Islamic tradition. He was rumoured to have become a Hafiz ul Quran, having committed the Quran to memory.

More importantly in the context of the civil-military tensions, he was reported to have been behind the sacking of a high court judge who had been critical of the ISI.

Within Army ranks Asim Munir has the reputation of a 'hardliner'. His subordinates maintain that his strictness has a cult status among the troops he has managed. Observers have expressed concern that Munir will bring a similar hardline approach as the spymaster, increasing the involvement of the intelligence agency in civilian matters even more than it already has.

A recent [example] of this 'over- reach' can be seen in the Supreme Court's sacking of Islamabad High Court judge Justice Shaukat Aziz on

Thursday for criticizing the ISI and noting its involvement in the disqualification and imprisonment of former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif.

The decision last week to expel 18 international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) from Pakistan was also taken at the

behest of the ISI as well, well-placed sources in the Interior Ministry have confirmed.

Similarly, authorities on Friday arrested rights activist Gulalai Is- mail, who is a member of the #Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) a Pashtun nationalist mo- vement that is critical

of the Pakis-tan Army.

Military sources say that Munir is a no nonsense ideologue, who will not tolerate any dissent or spreading of narratives that don't toe the line defined by the Army. 36

How he would translate his activism on the domestic front to the external relationship with the US was unclear during a period of tension bet- ween the two countries.

Within eight months of his appointment, he was replaced by another former DG of the ISI. Lt. Gen. Faiz Hameed, who had been recently promoted and assigned as DG I, T & E at GHQ, was sent back to the ISI to take over as DG from Lt. Gen. Munir.

He had been active earlier in the exchanges with a radical Islamist group that had blockaded the Rawalpindi-Islamabad main road at Faizabad and authored and signed the deal with the protesters. An unusual step for an army officer during a civilian go........"

36 Kunwar Khuldune Shahid, 'Pakistan Gets a Har- dliner Spymaster to Head the ISI', Asia Times, 15 Octo- ber 2018, asiatimes.com/2018/10/artic- le/pakistan-gets-a-hardline-spy-master-to-head- the-isi/