Despite being used as a mercenary force to fight foreign wars, Pakistan’s army retained the vestiges of a professional force. Under Army chief Asim Munir, those traces are disappearing as the Pakistani military is being transformed into a force fighting not for the country or the people, but for Islam. The transformation of the Pakistani military into a religious force comes even as Munir consolidates power through a constitutional backdoor.

Pakistan’s defence establishment is using fictitious terms like Fitna Al Khwarij and Fitna al Hindustan, branding rebels in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan—bordering Afghanistan—”Indian proxies”. Both the terms, fitna and khwarij, have Islamic connotations, dating back to 7th century Arabia. The Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations (DG ISPR), which manages the Pakistani military’s communications, has regularly been using the terms Fitna Al Khawarij and Fitna al Hindustan.

By using early Islamic terms, Munir is trying to showcase the Pakistani military as the defender of Islamic order against heretical rebels. This also gels with Pakistan’s self-projection as the champion of the Muslim Ummah, which ultimately helps it borrow from countries like Saudi Arabia to run its debt-tattered economy.

HOW ASIM MUNIR HAS LAUNCHED A SILENT COUP IN PAKISTAN

The civilian government of Shehbaz Sharif is kowtowing Field Marshal Munir even as he stages a silent coup, gobbling up the powers of the executive and the judiciary stage-managing an overhaul of Article 243. Pakistan’s Senate on Monday voted to approve the 27th Constitutional Amendment amid protests by some political parties, including former PM Imran Khan’s PTI.

The change will see the setting up of a Unified Command structure for the three services, with Munir getting absolute control of the military through the Constitution. Article 243 currently vests supreme command of the armed forces in the President, with operational control under the federal government. The amendment, after being passed in Pakistan’s Senate (Upper House), was given the go-ahead in the National Assembly (Lower House) on Tuesday. It scraps the power-sharing arrangement, creating the CDF as the paramount authority.

Munir, who is set to retire from the army chief’s post later this month, will assume the role as Chief of Defence Forces.

The change also incorporated the title of Field Marshal, which didn’t exist in the Constitution previously. His Field Marshal title will remain for life, according to a report in Jurist.Org, an online legal news service.

“The nation has declared Army Chief Asim Munir a hero following the war with India,” Pakistani daily, The News, reported Deputy Prime Minister Isaq Dar as saying after the Amendment was passed.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Supreme Court will see a curtailment in its powers, with the establishment of the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC).

WILL ASIM MUNIR ACCOMPLISH WHAT ZIA-UL-HAQ DREAMT OF?

“What General Ziaul Haq may have dreamt of, and what General Pervez Musharraf could not achieve, will soon be an accomplished fact,” wrote Makhdoom Ali Khan, a distinguished lawyer, in the Karachi-based Dawn, slamming the power grab through the FCC.

It was Zia-ul-Haq who staged a coup in 1977, dislodged elected Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and laid the edifice of a hardline Islamist state. It was Zia who started the Islamisation of the Pakistani military. Munir, who seems to be Zia’s rightful heir, might end up realising his grand vision, and more.

While Pakistan’s army chiefs have been known to be Sandhurst-trained, western music-enjoying and whisky-loving socially liberal, Asim Munir is a Hafiz-e-Quran (one who has memorised the Quran).

Unlike earlier army chiefs who leaned more on “professional soldier” narratives, Munir’s faith has become a key part of his public image.

In a speech in November 2024, Munir alleged India’s “Hindutva ideology” for “attacks on minorities in the UK, US and Canada”. In April this year, Munir highlighted the “stark differences between Hindus and Muslims” as the basis of Pakistan’s creation.

This was seen as dog-whistling, with Pakistani and Pakistan-trained terrorists killing 26 civilians in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, later that month. The unarmed civilians were segregated on the basis of religion before the terrorists shot them from point-blank range in front of their families.

HOW ASIM MUNIR’S ISLAMIST AGENDA HAS SEEPED INTO PAKISTAN’S MILITARY

Asim Munir’s speeches are laced with religious terms and references, and ideology has seeped deeply into the Pakistani military, so much so that Pakistan’s defence establishment has created fictitious enemies.

In August 2024, the Pakistani military decided to brand the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), as Fitna al Khawarij. In May this year, Pakistan said all rebel and militant groups operating in Balochistan would be referred to as Fitna-al-Hindustan.

While the Baloch rebels have been fighting for rights and against the exploitation by the Punjabi-dominated military-civilian hybrid regime, the TTP operates mostly in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and is a pro-Pashto movement.

By assigning them names borrowed from early Islamic history, the Munir-led establishment is projecting counter-insurgency as a religious battle. By fighting against fictitious enemies, Pakistani defence forces are attacking windmills just like Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra’s Sancho Panza did.

WHAT IS THE MEANING OF FITNA AND KHAWARIJ?

Both fitna and khawarij are concepts from early Islamic history of the 7th century, in the decades following Prophet Muhammad’s death in 632 CE.

In Arabic, fitna means civil unrest and refers to the internal conflicts and power struggles in Muslim society in the 7th and 8th centuries.

The first fitna or fitnah took place after the assassination of Uthman ibn Affan, the third caliph, in 656 and the accession of his kinsman Muawiyah I in 661 and included the caliphate of Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of Prophet Muhammad, according to Britannica online.

The main battle was between Ali, who became the fourth caliph, Prophet Muhammad’s wife, Aisha, and Muawiyah, the governor of Syria and founder of the Umayyad dynasty.

The second fitna took place after the martyrdom of Hussain, Ali’s son and the Prophet’s grandson, at Karbala, with revolts against the Umayyads.

The term khawarij has to do with the time of Ali’s caliphate and the first fitna. Khawarij comes from the Arabic word kharaja, which means “to leave” or “to rebel”.

A section of Ali’s partisans seceded over his failure to insist on his right to rule and arbitration with Muawiyah to avoid further bloodshed, and called themselves khawarij. It was a Khawarij or Kharijite who killed Ali with a poisoned sword while he was leading morning prayers in the Great Mosque of Kufa (in modern day Iraq).

HOW DOES USE OF FITNA AL KHAWARIJ, FITNA AL HINDUSTAN HELP PAKISTAN?

By using Islamic historical terms, Asim Munir is trying to give Pakistan’s fight against rebels in Balochistan a religious colour and branding the rebels heretic.

This also helps Pakistan counter the allegations of the TTP, which started the war against the Pakistani regime after Islamabad supported the US-led campaign in Afghanistan. The Battle of Tora Bora in 2008 was a watershed moment, with the Taliban declaring Pakistan a heretic nation and amalgamating splinter groups to fight it.

Calling the TTP Fitna Al Hindustan, is a diversionary tactic to bring a reference to India, which has denied any link to Pakistan’s home-grown problems. Islamabad has been so India-obsessed that most of its foreign policy and much of its internal matters are focused on tarnishing New Delhi and bleeding it with a thousand cuts.

Jailed former Prime Minister and PTI chief Imran Khan is Asim Munir’s bete noire with his partymen challenging the Rawalpindi deep state. In his multi-pronged fight, Munir is attempting to unify the public around an Islamic narrative, framing his wars as a religious test against “false Muslims” or Khawarij.

WHY ISLAMISATION OF PAKISTANI FORCES IS A WORRY FOR INDIA AND THE WORLD?

The Islamisation of the Pakistani defence forces is more concerning because it is a nuclear power. The scare that the bomb could fall into the hands of terrorists has given the West a cold sweat.

It was, in fact, the father of DG ISPR Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, nuclear scientist Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, who met al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden and tried to hand over nuclear weapons technology to terrorists.

On Monday, Afghanistan’s TOLO News headlined its lead article—Kabul–Islamabad Relations Under the Shadow of Pakistan’s Army Empowerment Plan. The Taliban-led regime in Afghanistan has been blaming Pakistan’s military regime for the deterioration in ties between Kabul and Islamabad.

That Asim Munir has been gaining power and clout at the cost of the civilian leadership was evident from his meetings with US President Donald Trump. This creates a dangerous asymmetry between India and Pakistan, as was evident in the four-day mini-war in May. While a civilian leadership would be answerable to the people, a military ruler would ignore human costs to satisfy the military deep state.

Since its secession from India in 1947, from the Mujahideen incursions at Partition to the 1965 war and the 1999 Kargil war, the Pakistani army has a long history of collaborating with terrorists and non-state jihadist groups. This has been part of their state policy. Under Asim Munir, that very jihadi element is now being injected directly into the military itself.

Munir’s recent consolidation of power through the constitutional amendment and Islamisation of the Pakistani defence forces is a double whammy for the world, especially India. Pakistan now has an all-powerful army chief, who is a Quran-e-Hafiz, and is taking the military to 7th century Arabia. Pakistani soldiers have long fought along with their jihadi brethren, and the latest overt bid at radicalisation might make the assimilation smoother.

– Ends

Published By:

Sushim Mukul

Published On:

Nov 12, 2025

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