Asim Munir formally appointed Pakistan’s first Chief of Defence Forces

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has approved the appointment of Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir as the countrys first Chief of Defence Forces CDF for a period of five yearsPrime Minister Shehbaz Sharifs summary recommending Munir for both Chief of the Army Staff COAS and Chief of Defence Forces CDF was approved the Pakistan Presidents office said in a X postPresident Asif Ali Zardari approved the appointment of Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir as COAS concurrently as CDF for 5 years the official X handle of the President of Pakistan said in a postPresident Asif Ali Zardari approved the appointment of Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir as COAS concurrently as CDF for 5 years and a 2year extension for Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmad Babar Sidhu from 19 March 2026 The President conveyed his best wishes to both pictwittercomRrIJNCC7I5mdash The President of Pakistan PresOfPakistan December 4 2025This comes after a lot of speculation over Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharifs willingness to hand over more power to Munir as the Sharif government was supposed to notify the appointment of the countrys first Chief of Defence Forces on November 29 the day Munirs original threeyear term as army chief endedThe Chief of Defence Forces role was established last month under the 27th Amendment to the Constitution aiming to centralise military commandAdditionally the Pakistan President also approved a twoyear extension in the service of Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmad Babar Sidhu which will take effect from March 19 2026Asif Ali Zardari conveyed his best wishes to both Pakistan Armed Forces officersAsim Munir who was promoted to the Field Marshal rank this year will also simultaneously hold the office of the Chief of Army Staff along with his duties as CDF He is only the second military officer in the countrys history to hold the Field Marshal title after Gen Ayub Khan who led Pakistan during the 1965 war with IndiaEarlier when the Pakistan government delayed the official notification concerning Munirs appointment as CDF former member of the Indias National Security Advisory Board Tilak Devasher said that Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif was intentionally avoiding the issue of notificationSpeaking to ANI Devasher highlighted that Sharif left for Bahrain and then London leading to speculation that hes deliberately staying away to avoid issuing the notificationVery smartly Pakistan PM had gone to Bahrain and from there he pushed off to London Devasher told ANI He is deliberately staying out of this because he clearly doesnt want to issue the notification giving Asim Munir 5 years as Army chief and as Chief of Defence Forces He thinks that by keeping away from Pakistan and not having to sign the notification he can escape the consequencesAccording to Devasher the failure to notify had created a constitutional and operational gap All in all this is a very messy state of affairs he said If the fact remains that he Asim Munir is no longer the Army chief then you have a situation where Pakistan doesnt have an Army chief and even the nuclear command authority which was supposed to be under the new post of Strategic Forces Command is also not there So its an extremely strange situation that Pakistan is under at the momentThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever