Field Marshal Munir | Pakistan

Chief of the Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir was appointed Pakistan’s first chief of defence forces (CDF) on Thursday after President Asif Ali Zardari signed off on the summary recommending the appointment. A press release from the presidency said the president also signed off on the two-year extension in the tenure of Air Chief Marshal (ACM) Zaheer Ahmed Babar Sidhu and extended his best wishes to both military commanders for their upcoming terms. The CDF position, created under the 27th Constitutional Ame­nd­ment, will replace the now-abolished office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) chairman, which formally ended on November 27. It would be a dual-hatted position combined with the office of the army chief. Following the appointment of the COAS as CDF, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif conveyed his best wishes to Field Marshal Munir. According to a statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office, the premier said that the appointment of the chief of defence Forces is aligned with contemporar...

US President Donald Trump hosted Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal Asim Munir at the Oval Office in Washington, DC during the early hours of Friday morning. US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were also present, a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) after the meeting said. It added that the meeting was held in a pleasant atmosphere. Photos released after the meeting showed both PM Shehbaz and Field Marshal Munir exchanging views with Trump. Trump was also all smiles as he flashed his signature thumbs up sign during a group photo. The meeting, which was closed to the press, was originally slated to begin at 4:30pm Washington time (1:30am PST) but was delayed by approximately 30 minutes as the US president spoke to reporters after signing executive orders. The meeting itself lasted approximately one hour and 20 minutes. Photos from the White House press pool before it began showed PM Shehbaz and Field Marshal Munir waiting pati...

United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that he was “honoured” to meet Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir for talks at the White House — also marking the first time a US president has hosted Pakistan’s army chief at the White House unaccompanied by senior civilian officials. The meeting, listed on the president’s official schedule, was held in the Cabinet Room and closed to the press. The lunch is being seen in Islamabad as a major diplomatic win, particularly because earlier this month, an Indian delegation met US Vice President JD Vance and Indian media depicted it as a diplomatic success, contrasting it with the apparent inability of the Pakistani delegation to secure a similar meeting. Gen Munir’s invitation to the White House is now being projected by officials in Islamabad as a diplomatic counterpoint to those narratives. When questioned about the meeting in an interaction with the media later, Trump said, “I was honoured to meet him (Field Marshal Munir) today.” Asked whether the talks includ...