Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif hands over more power to Asim Munir, Field Marshal role elevated as Pakistan’s FIRST ever Chief of Defence Forces

President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari has approved the appointment of Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir as the country’s first Chief of Defense Forces (CDF) for a period of five years.
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“President Asif Ali Zardari has approved the appointment of Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir as COAS also as CDF for a period of 5 years,” the official X branch of the President of Pakistan said in a post. he said.

This came after much speculation that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif would hand over more powers to Munir; because the Sharif government was supposed to announce the appointment of the country’s first Chief of General Staff on 29 November, when Munir’s first three-year term as chief of general staff ended.

The role of the Chief of Defense Forces was established last month under the 27th Amendment to the Constitution, which aims to centralize military command.
Additionally, the President of Pakistan also approved a two-year extension in the service of Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmad Babar Sidhu, effective from March 19, 2026.

Asif Ali Zardari extended his best wishes to both Pakistan Armed Forces officers.

Asım Münir, who was promoted to the rank of Marshal this year, will also serve as Chief of General Staff in addition to his CDF duties. He is the second officer in the country’s history to hold the title of Field Marshal, after General Ayub Khan, who led Pakistan in the war with India in 1965.

Earlier, when the Pakistani government delayed the official notification regarding Munir’s appointment as CDF, Tilak Devasher, former member of India’s National Security Advisory Board, had said that Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was deliberately avoiding the issue of notification.

Speaking to ANI, Devasher emphasized that Sharif first went to Bahrain and then to London, leading to speculations that he was deliberately staying away to avoid making the report.

“The Pakistani Prime Minister made a very smart move by going to Bahrain and from there on to London,” Devasher told ANI. “He deliberately stays out of this because he does not want to openly publish the communiqué giving Asım Münir a 5-year term as Chief of General Staff and Chief of General Staff. He thinks he can avoid the consequences by staying away from Pakistan and not having to sign the communiqué.”

According to Devasher, the failure to notify created a constitutional and operational vacuum. “The bottom line is, it’s a very complicated situation,” he said. “If the fact remains that Asim Munir is no longer the Chief of Defense Staff, then we are faced with a situation where Pakistan does not have a Chief of Defense Staff and does not even have the nuclear command authority that he should have under the new post of Commander of Strategic Forces. So, it is an extremely strange situation that Pakistan is in right now.”

(ANI Entries)