caliph-munir-and-his-caliphate-in-the-making

By VIMAL SUMBLY

 

That ‘Field Marshal’ Asim Munir is in complete control of Pakistan government is by now an established and acknowledged fact. He is being “recognised” as the “real ruler” of Pakistan by no less a person than US President Donald Trump himself. Munir appears to be on way not only to outdo all his military-dictator predecessors, but also beyond Pakistan in the broad and wide Islamic world. He appears to be preparing himself to be the Caliph of the Islamic Ummah, 101 years after the Caliphate was abolished in 1924.

 

Munir has always been invoking Islam in his conversations, communications and public addresses. He is said to have learnt the entire Quran, the holy book of Muslims, by rote. He uses his Quranic knowledge extensively quoting the holy book verbatim as and when required to influence his audiences.

 

Recently, while addressing a conference of the ‘ulema’ (Islamic religious scholars) he claimed that he had “experienced” the “divine intervention” during Operation Sindoor in May this year. “We felt it”, he claimed, while quoting a Quranic verse to substantiate his argument, adding, “if Allah helps you, none can overcome you”.

 

“Mera Khuda gawah hai… yeh ‘Bunyan-ul-Marsoos’ (mein Allah ki madad aayi. Humne Allah ki madad aate hue dekhi, mehsoos ki. Falabu humne mehsoos kiya… Jinhen tum nahi jaante magar Allah jaanta hai.” (My Lord is witness. During ‘Bunyan ul Marsoos’, Allah’s help came. We saw Allah’s help coming, felt it. Indeed, we felt it… Those who you do not know, but Allah knows).

 

Pakistan named its operation during the conflict as Bunyan ul Marsoos, a Quranic phrase, meaning impenetrable and impregnable wall against the enemy.

 

While this claim may have appealed to the ‘ulema’ in the audience and the orthodox and radical elements across the country, militarily and strategically this was a sign of weakness and an admission that Pakistani defence forces are inferior to Indians and they needed “divine help” to combat the Indian Army. But Munir knows that the conservative and orthodox sections of the society duly supported by radical religious leaders will accept his claims on face value and that too when these are made in the context of India. He will soon start assuming the role of a “cult head” and not merely the military commander of his country.

 

Munir is currently not only the most powerful person in the country, he has also gotten a law passed by the Pakistan government that guarantees him immunity for any acts of omission and commission. This is in addition to his becoming the Joint Chief of Staff, the commander of all armed forces, besides having been granted a term for five more years till 2030 through a special “constitutional amendment” in November this year. Through the same amendment he was granted life-long immunity from law.

 

As of now, Munir really does not need to follow into the footsteps of his predecessors like Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan, Zia-ul-Haq or Pervez Musharraf. He is already enjoying all the power that he would have enjoyed after becoming the president or supreme leader of the country. Under the current arrangement he is enjoying complete power without any accountability, which will always be that of the “elected” government.

 

Domestically, Munir has stabilised his position with five years of guaranteed tenure, taking control of all the defence forces, including the navy and air force, besides getting immunity from any future legal action. What else does a dictator need? No ruler anywhere ever grants “immunity” to himself, which Munir has done through a law. It is a different story that when the regimes change in Pakistan, they just don’t care about any laws. Any immunity is a momentary consolation, as it does not guarantee any future protection. Gen Pervez Musharaf’s plight after he was made to demit office, should serve as a lesson for Munir.

 

Munir is simultaneously firming up his position and standing abroad. His, so far, greatest achievement has been winning over US President Donald Trump to his side. It was indeed a great coup, no matter the cost. Trump was considered to be thoroughly ‘pro-India’ during his first term. He had built up a strong equation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. When he won the second term, there was a lot of optimism across India. It vanished soon after Trump’s surprisingly hostile stance against India.

 

Also read: Munir is more of a threat to Pakistan government than to India

 

At the same time, he started inclining unusually towards Pakistan. Hosting the Pakistan army chief over lunch in the aftermath of a conflict with India was quite unusual for a US President, no matter what interests he had, and those certainly were less diplomatic and more personal like nomination for Nobel Peace Prize, cyrpto and rare earth deals with Pakistan.

 

Munir said yes to everything. Anyone in his position would do the same thing. After a long time, he had managed to rebuild a bond with the United States. Not only did US get closer to Pakistan, it was seen growing distant from India. It was an unusual turn of events to the diplomatic advantage of Pakistan over India. Given the hostility and hatred prevailing across Pakistan against India, these developments, which are credited to Munir, make him a bigger hero. If and when he decides to “remove” Shahbaz Sharif as the country’s ruler—which he will—and assume the role himself, Munir will not face any opposition or resistance.

 

Treating Imran Khan in Pakistan the way he is being treated is not an easy thing to do. It needs audacious courage and involves a great risk. At one stage, Imran was the most popular person in the country. Cricket, after Islam, is the second religion of Pakistanis. Imran led the country to decisive victories, including the 1992 World Cup. That victory provided the people of the country a feeling of self-assurance when everything around looked dark and disappointing. Munir has managed to “jail” Imran without much resistance. He even toyed with the idea of getting him killed as was evident with the deliberately planted stories about his “death in jail” to gauge the public reaction in case that happened.

 

At the same time, Munir is building up coalitionwith the foreign countries. It is not the “elected” government of Pakistan that is signing various deals like on trade and defence with foreign countries, but its army commander Gen Munir. Since becoming the Pakistan Chief of Army Staff Munir has been involved in signing seven defence pacts/ memorandum of understanding with seven different countries. He has signed deals with China, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Libya, UAE, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Jordan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Iran.

 

There is a great leadership vacuum in the Islamic world. Although Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been posing as the modern day Caliph under nostalgic memories of the Ottoman Empire with Turkey as its headquarters, unlike Munir, he does not enjoy any patronage from the West, particularly the US and Saudi Arabia, two important countries in the world in terms of the Islamic diplomacy.

 

With both the US and Saudi supporting him, Munir, for sure must be visualising a bigger and a greater role for himself, not just within Pakistan, but also on the global Islamic stage, like the modern day, ‘Khalifa’, the Caliph of a modern day Islamic Caliphate, not much different from the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (the ISIS), albeit in a sophisticate way.