Pakistan’s first Hafiz-e-Qur’an army chief, Asim Munir, leads with faith and force.
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00:00Allah Ta'ala نے مسلمانوں کو مایوس ہونے سے منع کیا ہے
00:04و لا تیسو من روح اللہ انہو لا یا یسو من روح اللہ الا القوم ال کافرون
00:12اس کا ترجمہ ہے اللہ کی رحمت سے مایوس نہیں ہونا
00:16اللہ کی رحمت سے صرف کافر مایوس ہوتے ہیں
00:20Early into his military rule, Field Marshal Aayyoh Khan is said to have
00:24hosted India's High Commissioner Rajeshwar Dayal in his garden and offered him a drink.
00:28Dayal apparently requested for nimbu paani because Ramzan was on.
00:32Khan shot back saying don't be ridiculous old chap have a decent whiskey.
00:36But it's Ramzan sir, Dayal replied to which journalist Karan Thapar recounted in this column
00:41the self-appointed Field Marshal shot back saying so what it's Ramzan stop being a good Hindu
00:46and become a good Muslim instead. It's true.
00:53Muhammad Ali Jinnah also was known to have a drink once in a while.
00:55Jinnah's successor Lia Katali Khan could hold his drinks so well he impressed the Americans
01:00a fair bit during a state visit to the US in 1950.
01:03General Yaaya Khan was a heavy drinker as well.
01:06His successor Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is said to have told at a rally in Lahore
01:09Haan, میں شراب پیتا ہوں لیکن عوام کا خون نہیں پیتا.
01:14Yes, I drink but not drink the people's blood.
01:16Parsi liquor baron Minochar Bhandra was made in MP 1985
01:20when Zia-ul-Haq was at his most powerful.
01:22Parsi Zulfutto had a fondness for gin and tonic
01:25while Parweez Musharraf loved his whiskey.
01:31Pakistan's Ami chief Asim Munir is a devout general who wears religion on his sleeve
01:36in a country where alcohol is banned
01:38and hence foreign liquor has to be illegally imported
01:41in large shipping containers quietly.
01:44But Asim Munir's story begins far from borders, battle maps or bhoos.
01:48He was born in Rawalpindi in 1966
01:50to a family of Sayyid Punjabis who crossed from Jalandhar at partition.
01:55His father taught school by day and preached by noon prayer.
01:58Faith framed the household.
02:00Young Asim learned Arabic letters before algebra.
02:03He would later memorize the entire Quran
02:05while posted to Saudi Arabia as a lieutenant colonel.
02:07Well done and keep it up.
02:10Munir did not enter the army through Pakistan's elite military academy.
02:13He trained at a less prestigious center
02:15but earned the Sword of Honor Award as the best cadet of 1986.
02:19They say he used to run drills with a pocket-sized Quran under his camp.
02:23And we are all well aware of the ways and means to do it.
02:28Asim Munir rose fast.
02:30First as company commander, then head of military intelligence.
02:33In 2018, he became ISI chief.
02:35But his time there was short.
02:37He briefed Prime Minister Imran Khan on corruption rumors
02:39involving Khan's wife Bushra Bibi.
02:41Khan bristled.
02:41Munir was out in eight months.
02:44ISI's shortest serving chief.
02:46He was moved to Gujaranwala, then made quartermaster general.
02:49Many would fade thanks to his demotion.
02:51But Munir did not.
02:52In 2022, just days from retirement,
02:54Shahbaz Sharif made him army chief.
02:57Khan supporters cried foul.
02:58Rawal Pindit cheered.
03:00Munir leads with scriptures as much as strategy.
03:03His speeches are sermons in uniform.
03:05Under him, the Pakistan army began calling Tariq-e-Taliban,
03:08Fithma al-Khawarij, the name of a sect that revolted against the fourth caliph during Islam's first civil war.
03:15They have their own perverted interpretation of the Islam,
03:18which is not allowed in Islam.
03:19He also put Kashmir back on center stage.
03:48Another region where forces violently trampling our human rights
03:53and muzzling voices for self-determination
03:56is Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
04:00Within Pakistan, he backed military courts to crack down on rioters protesting Imran Khan's arrest.
04:04What he did, I just want to tell you one thing.
04:08This has not been in the history of the country.
04:10Parliament, extended army tenures and supreme court seats.
04:13Critics say the military's grip grew through laws, not rules.
04:18He also redrew Pakistan's economic playbook,
04:20which engulfed Chinese investors through a military civilian council
04:23that he calls one window governance.
04:25Here, this is a song Munir's army released
04:27on the 97th anniversary of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
04:31Chinese may have been Iron Brothers for Munir,
04:46but he also managed to get the US to release $400 million in F-16 aid.
04:51This was a thank you from Washington for Munir's army
04:53helping the US nab an ISIS-K leader.
04:56Munir is Pakistan's first Hafiz-e-Quran army chief.
04:58His officers recall him walking parade grounds at night, Quran in hand.
05:03As somebody said, Ziya Islamized, Sharaf Globalized, Munir Theologizes.
05:19What Munir leaves behind may not be peace,
05:22because across the border is a man by the name of Narendra Modi,
05:25India's Prime Minister, who is rearing to avenge
05:28the death of Indian civilians in Pahal Gham.
05:31Will it be Modi who has the final say on Munir's destiny?
05:34Tell us what you think.
05:35I'm Manisha Dikari.
05:37Muslims Fast.