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And when the cameras are off, and Munir returns to Rawalpindi, he will not carry the weight of honour, only the burden of betrayal. Betrayal of Palestine, of Iran, of China, of his own people. But perhaps most damning of all: betrayal of the very scripture he claims to embody.
By JUNAID S AHMAD
In the heart of Washington, DC, where empires mint their minions and crown their clients, a spectacle unfolded on Sunday June 15 – equal parts tragic and farcical.
Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General Asim Munir, arrived not as a representative of a sovereign republic but as a loyal subordinate reporting to his handlers. Dressed in the pomp of a self-anointed Field Marshal and carrying the Qur’an in one hand and Washington’s war manual in the other, Munir is not here to talk peace or justice. He is here for his coronation – a Muslim Zionist’s pilgrimage to the Empire.
One would think that leading an army that has illegally taken power in its own country, crushed civilian dissent, trampled due process, and converted the judiciary into a kangaroo circus might provoke awkward silences in the corridors of American power. Instead, Munir received warm handshakes and high praise. US CENTCOM Commander General Michael Kurilla, in testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, called Pakistan a ‘phenomenal partner in the counterterrorism world.’ That term – phenomenal partner – deserves its own place in Orwell’s graveyard of euphemisms. After all, this is the same military establishment that has spent decades engineering the very terrorist proxies that Washington now pays it handsomely to fight.
But Munir’s visit is about much more than recycled praise. He is in DC to affirm that Pakistan remains open for business – imperial business. With a dead-eyed confidence befitting a man who disappears civilians by breakfast and quotes scripture by lunch, Munir is here to assure his American patrons of two things: first, that he will say the right things in public about Palestine and Iran while doing precisely the opposite behind closed doors; and second, that Pakistan remains a pliable pawn in the geopolitical war against China, Russia, and Iran.
Let’s begin with the absurdity of the former. As Gaza bleeds under Israel’s genocidal assault – a campaign so ruthless that even many in the West now admit to its genocidal character – Munir’s regime in Islamabad has mouthed tired statements of ‘solidarity.’ One might mistake this for some semblance of conscience until you realise that the Pakistani state has mastered the art of theatrical sympathy. They have performed the same pantomime for the Palestinians for the past 20 months, issuing hollow condemnations while deepening intelligence and military cooperation with Tel Aviv behind the scenes. When Israel brazenly bombed Iranian consular staff in Damascus – a direct assault on a Muslim neighbour – Islamabad issued more of the same paper-thin outrage. Meanwhile, the military top brass quietly reassured their Gulf paymasters and Pentagon partners that no actual solidarity exists. Just rhetoric. Optics. Nothing to see here.
Munir’s mission is to reassure the American establishment that, like Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, he knows the script: wag a finger publicly but never interfere materially with Empire’s objectives. So, while Tehran is under siege and Gaza endures daily massacres, Munir wouldn’t dream of offering real support to either. This is not a man of conviction, but a technician of power. The only thing he’s memorised more religiously than the Qur’an is the imperial rulebook.
Speaking of the Qur’an, the irony would be hilarious if it weren’t so grotesque. General Asim Munir loves to remind everyone that he is a hafiz, a man who has memorised the Holy Book. In his sermons to fellow generals and his PR team in Rawalpindi, he invokes Islamic morality with the solemnity of a preacher. But somewhere between Surah Baqarah and Surah An-Nisa, the good general must have skipped the verses about justice, mercy, and accountability. One wonders what divine license Munir believes he has to run a torture state – where peaceful civilians are abducted, mutilated, and disappeared, and the lucky ones are dragged before sham military tribunals masquerading as courts.
But this is precisely why Munir is beloved in Washington. Democracy is inconvenient. Civilian rule is messy. Elected leaders, like Imran Khan, say dangerous things about sovereignty, justice, and independence. Far better to deal with a military man who, while unelected and unloved at home, is reliable abroad. So reliable, in fact, that many in the Pakistani-American community have been told in whispers by Trump-era officials that the great orange messiah will ‘free’ Imran Khan if re-elected. And in their infinite wisdom, many Pakistani-Americans have taken that bait – endorsing Trump in the hope that a man who banned Muslims will now rescue one. All of this, of course, is part of the circus: a tragicomic dance of false hope and elite betrayal.
While in DC, Munir is expected to assure Trump’s team that Pakistan’s relationship with China is purely transactional. Nothing ideological. Nothing strategic. Just business. Behind closed doors, he sings paeans to US-Pakistan ‘military-to-military’ ties forged in the Cold War crucible. A bond older than the Pakistani constitution. And yet, in Beijing, the same Munir hums a different tune: we are your Iron Brothers; you fund our infrastructure, and we keep your enemies at bay. It’s a diplomat’s tango of duplicity, and Munir dances it well.
But there is a method to this madness. The recent military exchange between India and Pakistan revealed just how useful the Pakistani military remains to US strategic designs. India may be Washington’s prized partner in countering China, but sometimes even golden boys grow too big for their boots. When Modi trades too much with Russia or flirts too closely with BRICS, Washington applies pressure – indirectly. One way to do that is by enabling Pakistani military escalation in Kashmir or greenlighting low-intensity skirmishes that humble Delhi. Another is by propping up an anti-Modi regime in Bangladesh. Divide and conquer, redux.
And Munir knows all this. He knows that behind the polite façades of ‘counterterrorism cooperation,’ the real goal of the renewed US presence in Pakistan is to monitor, harass, and undermine Chinese interests. The so-called war on ISIS-K is the perfect pretext for what is, in essence, a covert hybrid war against China’s Belt and Road Initiative. From Gwadar to Gilgit, the presence of Western intelligence outfits – often supported by elements within Pakistan’s own intelligence agencies – is growing. The terror attacks on Chinese nationals and infrastructure? A warning shot from Pakistan’s old handlers to its new financiers.
That Pakistan’s top general is complicit in this duplicity is not surprising. That he drapes his complicity in Qur’anic verses is what makes it obscene. His moralism is as hollow as his commitment to democracy. The civilians of Pakistan have learned this the hard way: from the brutal crackdown on peaceful protestors to the banning of dissenting media, from mass detentions to extrajudicial killings, all while the regime lauds itself as a custodian of Islamic values.
Meanwhile, the people of Pakistan continue to languish under an unelected, unaccountable military dictatorship. The economy collapses, inflation soars, and the youth lose hope. Elections are a mirage, courts are a mockery, and politics has become a blood sport controlled by a uniformed elite that pretends to be saviours while plundering the country from cantonments and DHA villas. In any sane world, a man like Munir would not be allowed to lead a parade, let alone a nuclear-armed state. In a just world, he wouldn’t even qualify to be a dog catcher.
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And yet here we are, watching him stride through Washington as a hero of Empire.
This is the tragedy of Pakistan in miniature: a nation with revolutionary potential shackled by comprador generals who serve foreign interests while pretending to uphold national dignity. A people rich in talent, history, and courage, but ruled by men who quote the Qur’an while handing the keys to the kingdom to Zionists, imperialists, and war profiteers.
So let the ceremonies in Washington continue. Let the think tanks toast their favourite ‘stabilising force’ in Pakistan. Let the photo-ops roll and the talking points circulate. But let no one be fooled. This is not a state visit. It is a loyalty pledge. A ritual of obedience.
And when the cameras are off, and Munir returns to Rawalpindi, he will not carry the weight of honour, only the burden of betrayal. Betrayal of Palestine, of Iran, of China, of his own people. But perhaps most damning of all: betrayal of the very scripture he claims to embody.
History will remember this visit – not as diplomacy, but as disgrace.
Professor Junaid S. Ahmad teaches Law, Religion, and Global Politics and is the Director of the Centre for the Study of Islam and Decolonization (CSID), Islamabad, Pakistan. He is a member of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST – https://just-international.org), Movement for Liberation from Nakba (MLN – https://nakbaliberation.com), and Saving Humanity and Planet Earth (SHAPE –https://www.theshapeproject.com/)
