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Field Marshal Munir has displayed palpable insensitivity in handling the situation in restive Balochistan by trying to resolve this ideologically and politically sensitive issue solely through military means and his myopic outlook has created a crisis of gargantuan proportions
The prevailing extent of the political mess in Pakistan is evident from its Defence Minister Khawaja Asif’s candid acknowledgment that the country’s current “hybrid model” of governance with a “co-ownership of the power structure” between the military and legislature is “not an ideal democratic government.” His questionable assessment that “this hybrid arrangement, I think it is doing wonders” and his pathetic reasoning that this unique model is “a practical necessity until Pakistan is out of the woods as far as economic and governance problems are concerned” exposes the characteristic servility of Pakistan’s legislature to an overbearing army.
How can army Generals with no formal training other than fighting wars sort out a country’s “economic and governance problems” defies logic. And though there’s no evidence to suggest that Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir has in his third year as Pakistan’s army chief made any remarkable contribution towards ameliorating the country’s economic and governance woes, his brash way of meddling in politics and resolving problems through use of force has created turmoil in Pakistan.
It all started with Field Marshal Munir using every trick in the book including brazenly rigging the general elections just to ensure that despite his immense public popularity, former Prime Minister Imran Khan is denied his legitimate right to form the government. Not only this, the army chief even used the bureaucracy, police and judiciary to implicate the former prime minister in a host of legal cases, and it's but natural that such barefaced victimisation rightly angered his supporters.
This was followed by Khan’s controversial arrest by Rangers, officered and controlled by the Pakistan army whose personnel abducted him in broad daylight from Islamabad High Court premises, and this extremely provocative action resulted in the violent May 9, 2023 protests during which irate mobs targeted military assets and facilities. So, the Field Marshal has the dubious distinction of being the army chief when for the first time in the country’s history respected symbols of the armed forces were targeted by the public.
Field Marshal Munir has displayed palpable insensitivity in handling the situation in restive Balochistan by trying to resolve this ideologically and politically sensitive issue solely through military means and his myopic outlook has created a crisis of gargantuan proportions. Rampant extra judicial killings, enforced disappearances, widespread torture and use of brute force against peaceful protests organised by Baloch Yakjehti Committee [BYC], a human rights organisation, and illegal incarceration of its leaders [including women] has only further alienated the persecuted Baloch people.
So serious is the scourge of unimaginable violence unleashed by the Pakistan army in Balochistan that it has even horrified the UN and propelled it to nominate a team of 12 international experts to look into this issue. After detailed analysis, this team has demanded that “All measures to counter terrorism must always respect international human rights and humanitarian law.” It has also urged “Pakistan to establish independent and effective search and investigation mechanisms to identify the fate and whereabouts of those forcibly disappeared, criminalise enforced disappearances and hold perpetrators accountable.”
The UN experts’ team has further observed that “Pakistan appears to conflate legitimate human and minority rights advocacy and public demonstrations with terrorism, threatening freedoms of expression, assembly, and association,” adding that “Repeated internet blackouts in Balochistan have impeded freedom of information, transparency, accountability, political participation, and civic space.” It has also opined that “Proposed new internment centers for terrorism suspects in Balochistan could also lead to gross human rights violations, including arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances and torture.”
Most importantly, it has maintained that “Pakistan must also increase its efforts to address grievances in Balochistan that may fuel violence.” Unfortunately, rather than heed to the UN expert team’s sagacious advice, the military led “hybrid government” under Field Marshal Munir craftily oversaw passage of the draconian Anti-Terrorism [Balochistan Amendment] Act, 2025 by the Balochistan Assembly in order to protect the army’s rank and file from being indicted for committing serious human rights violations.
According to the Human Rights Council of Balochistan [HRCB], Anti-Terrorism [Balochistan Amendment] Act, 2025 “represents an alarming escalation in the erosion of civil liberties, the suppression of dissent, and the continued militarisation of civilian space in Balochistan.” For the unversed, this amendment grants sweeping and unchecked powers to the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD), allowing it to detain individuals without trial for up to 90 days, conduct raids and make arrests without warrants, as well as unilaterally designate civilians as threats under vague and broadly defined criteria.
That Field Marshal Munir has come down very heavily on the hapless Baloch people is evident, and is the result of his humiliation at the hands of Baloch armed groups, who by their audacious actions like hijacking the Jaffar Express and taking over temporary control of highways and even small towns in Balochistan as well as striking the security forces at will have exposed Rawalpindi’s lies that it is in complete control of things in this restive province. Credible sources also claim that Beijing has pulled up Pakistan's army chief for failing to provide requisite security to its citizens working on China Pakistan Economic Corridor [CPEC] projects in Balochistan.
HRCB data regarding enforced disappearances in Balochistan from January to May 2025 reproduced below highlights the gravity of the situation. Out of a total of 719 incidents enforced disappearances reported during this period, while only 129 individuals have been released, 35 have been extra judicially executed and only two have been shifted to jail. The whereabouts of a whopping 553 abducted persons remains unknown.
Such a despicable thing happening in today’s civilized world is indeed appalling, and more disconcerting is the international community’s stoic silence on this humongous human rights violation. But then, for the world the Baloch people are expendable and hence their miseries mean little to the West.
The state of affairs in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa [KP] is no different and despite Rawalpindi’s claims of having put the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan [TTP] on the back-foot, this terrorist group continues to hold sway in many areas of KP and has been relentlessly launching deadly attacks against the Pakistan army. The significant collateral damage in terms of fatalities and injuries suffered by civilians due to the Pakistan army’s drone attacks and military operations has further alienated the locals.
The harsh reality is despite verbose rhetoric, the ‘hybrid government’ of Pakistan headed by Field Marshal Munir has little to showcase as far as its effectiveness is concerned because the country continues to grapple with a burgeoning economic crisis and the army’s performance in anti-terrorist operations leaves much to be desired.
The Global terrorism Index 2025 reveals that with fatalities rising by 45 per cent to 1,081, Pakistan has recorded the world's second largest increase in terrorism related deaths during 2024. Similarly, the number of Pakistanis killed due to TTP violence has nearly doubled between 2023 and 2024. On the economic front, while the Asian Development Bank has pegged Pakistan's GDP growth projection for 2025 at 2.5 percent, it still ranks even lower than Afghanistan.
In its February 2025 credit opinion on Pakistan, Moody's Ratings mentions how “The country continues to be reliant on timely financing from official partners to fully meet its external debt obligations, underscoring the importance of steady progress with its IMF Extended Fund Facility program to continually unlock financing.”
Citing sources from Pakistan’s National Accounts Committee, ARY News has also reported that the Government of Pakistan has reportedly fallen short of its economic growth target for the fiscal year 2024-25, achieving a growth rate of just 2.68 per cent against the projection of 3.6 per cent.
While Islamabad is definitely making efforts to address security and economy related issues but the pace of progress on both fronts is far from satisfactory due to which Pakistan will not be able to throw away its begging bowl in the foreseeable future. So, the Pakistani Defence Minister’s claim of the country's hybrid government “doing wonders” needs to be taken with more than just a pinch of salt!
Email:------------------------------nileshkunwar.56@gmail.com
Field Marshal Munir has displayed palpable insensitivity in handling the situation in restive Balochistan by trying to resolve this ideologically and politically sensitive issue solely through military means and his myopic outlook has created a crisis of gargantuan proportions
The prevailing extent of the political mess in Pakistan is evident from its Defence Minister Khawaja Asif’s candid acknowledgment that the country’s current “hybrid model” of governance with a “co-ownership of the power structure” between the military and legislature is “not an ideal democratic government.” His questionable assessment that “this hybrid arrangement, I think it is doing wonders” and his pathetic reasoning that this unique model is “a practical necessity until Pakistan is out of the woods as far as economic and governance problems are concerned” exposes the characteristic servility of Pakistan’s legislature to an overbearing army.
How can army Generals with no formal training other than fighting wars sort out a country’s “economic and governance problems” defies logic. And though there’s no evidence to suggest that Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir has in his third year as Pakistan’s army chief made any remarkable contribution towards ameliorating the country’s economic and governance woes, his brash way of meddling in politics and resolving problems through use of force has created turmoil in Pakistan.
It all started with Field Marshal Munir using every trick in the book including brazenly rigging the general elections just to ensure that despite his immense public popularity, former Prime Minister Imran Khan is denied his legitimate right to form the government. Not only this, the army chief even used the bureaucracy, police and judiciary to implicate the former prime minister in a host of legal cases, and it's but natural that such barefaced victimisation rightly angered his supporters.
This was followed by Khan’s controversial arrest by Rangers, officered and controlled by the Pakistan army whose personnel abducted him in broad daylight from Islamabad High Court premises, and this extremely provocative action resulted in the violent May 9, 2023 protests during which irate mobs targeted military assets and facilities. So, the Field Marshal has the dubious distinction of being the army chief when for the first time in the country’s history respected symbols of the armed forces were targeted by the public.
Field Marshal Munir has displayed palpable insensitivity in handling the situation in restive Balochistan by trying to resolve this ideologically and politically sensitive issue solely through military means and his myopic outlook has created a crisis of gargantuan proportions. Rampant extra judicial killings, enforced disappearances, widespread torture and use of brute force against peaceful protests organised by Baloch Yakjehti Committee [BYC], a human rights organisation, and illegal incarceration of its leaders [including women] has only further alienated the persecuted Baloch people.
So serious is the scourge of unimaginable violence unleashed by the Pakistan army in Balochistan that it has even horrified the UN and propelled it to nominate a team of 12 international experts to look into this issue. After detailed analysis, this team has demanded that “All measures to counter terrorism must always respect international human rights and humanitarian law.” It has also urged “Pakistan to establish independent and effective search and investigation mechanisms to identify the fate and whereabouts of those forcibly disappeared, criminalise enforced disappearances and hold perpetrators accountable.”
The UN experts’ team has further observed that “Pakistan appears to conflate legitimate human and minority rights advocacy and public demonstrations with terrorism, threatening freedoms of expression, assembly, and association,” adding that “Repeated internet blackouts in Balochistan have impeded freedom of information, transparency, accountability, political participation, and civic space.” It has also opined that “Proposed new internment centers for terrorism suspects in Balochistan could also lead to gross human rights violations, including arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances and torture.”
Most importantly, it has maintained that “Pakistan must also increase its efforts to address grievances in Balochistan that may fuel violence.” Unfortunately, rather than heed to the UN expert team’s sagacious advice, the military led “hybrid government” under Field Marshal Munir craftily oversaw passage of the draconian Anti-Terrorism [Balochistan Amendment] Act, 2025 by the Balochistan Assembly in order to protect the army’s rank and file from being indicted for committing serious human rights violations.
According to the Human Rights Council of Balochistan [HRCB], Anti-Terrorism [Balochistan Amendment] Act, 2025 “represents an alarming escalation in the erosion of civil liberties, the suppression of dissent, and the continued militarisation of civilian space in Balochistan.” For the unversed, this amendment grants sweeping and unchecked powers to the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD), allowing it to detain individuals without trial for up to 90 days, conduct raids and make arrests without warrants, as well as unilaterally designate civilians as threats under vague and broadly defined criteria.
That Field Marshal Munir has come down very heavily on the hapless Baloch people is evident, and is the result of his humiliation at the hands of Baloch armed groups, who by their audacious actions like hijacking the Jaffar Express and taking over temporary control of highways and even small towns in Balochistan as well as striking the security forces at will have exposed Rawalpindi’s lies that it is in complete control of things in this restive province. Credible sources also claim that Beijing has pulled up Pakistan's army chief for failing to provide requisite security to its citizens working on China Pakistan Economic Corridor [CPEC] projects in Balochistan.
HRCB data regarding enforced disappearances in Balochistan from January to May 2025 reproduced below highlights the gravity of the situation. Out of a total of 719 incidents enforced disappearances reported during this period, while only 129 individuals have been released, 35 have been extra judicially executed and only two have been shifted to jail. The whereabouts of a whopping 553 abducted persons remains unknown.
Such a despicable thing happening in today’s civilized world is indeed appalling, and more disconcerting is the international community’s stoic silence on this humongous human rights violation. But then, for the world the Baloch people are expendable and hence their miseries mean little to the West.
The state of affairs in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa [KP] is no different and despite Rawalpindi’s claims of having put the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan [TTP] on the back-foot, this terrorist group continues to hold sway in many areas of KP and has been relentlessly launching deadly attacks against the Pakistan army. The significant collateral damage in terms of fatalities and injuries suffered by civilians due to the Pakistan army’s drone attacks and military operations has further alienated the locals.
The harsh reality is despite verbose rhetoric, the ‘hybrid government’ of Pakistan headed by Field Marshal Munir has little to showcase as far as its effectiveness is concerned because the country continues to grapple with a burgeoning economic crisis and the army’s performance in anti-terrorist operations leaves much to be desired.
The Global terrorism Index 2025 reveals that with fatalities rising by 45 per cent to 1,081, Pakistan has recorded the world's second largest increase in terrorism related deaths during 2024. Similarly, the number of Pakistanis killed due to TTP violence has nearly doubled between 2023 and 2024. On the economic front, while the Asian Development Bank has pegged Pakistan's GDP growth projection for 2025 at 2.5 percent, it still ranks even lower than Afghanistan.
In its February 2025 credit opinion on Pakistan, Moody's Ratings mentions how “The country continues to be reliant on timely financing from official partners to fully meet its external debt obligations, underscoring the importance of steady progress with its IMF Extended Fund Facility program to continually unlock financing.”
Citing sources from Pakistan’s National Accounts Committee, ARY News has also reported that the Government of Pakistan has reportedly fallen short of its economic growth target for the fiscal year 2024-25, achieving a growth rate of just 2.68 per cent against the projection of 3.6 per cent.
While Islamabad is definitely making efforts to address security and economy related issues but the pace of progress on both fronts is far from satisfactory due to which Pakistan will not be able to throw away its begging bowl in the foreseeable future. So, the Pakistani Defence Minister’s claim of the country's hybrid government “doing wonders” needs to be taken with more than just a pinch of salt!
Email:------------------------------nileshkunwar.56@gmail.com
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