Gen Asim Munir, who is the new Army chief of Pakistan, has to battle its falling credibility

Anew army chief has taken over from General Qamar Javed Bajwa. The new army chief is General Asim Munir. In Pakistan popularity of army Generals is as important as the popularity of politicians in their careers. General Qamar Javed Bajwa, had become quite unpopular during his last months in office. The reason of course is the role he played in the ouster of the former prime minister of Pakistan Imran Khan. Imran had fallen off from the General and criticized him for orchestrating his ouster through a no-confidence vote in April on the behest of foreign powers. After the assassination bid on Imran Khan People turned rather sympathetic to the former Pakistan captain and little skeptic of General Bajwa who had overshot his tenure several times and continued in the office for the power he wielded in the army and the political circles of the country. However, it going to be quite a challenging job for General Munir. One of the biggest challenges he faces is the credibility of the army and his position.

After the ouster of Imran Khan, the Pakistan

army is being seen as bad boys who dance to the tunes of Uncle Sam for all the monetary support they get from him. Besides, Imran has played his victim card rather well and painted the army as the culprit for his ouster. His scathing remarks have damaged the reputation of the army in a big way.Genberal Munir must restore credibility to the army which has taken major popularity hit from Khan’s large and growing support base.  Another major task he has at hand is to bring some semblance of political order to the country. The present government in place right now is courtesy Pakistan army but it faces a huge trust deficit. General Munir would have to opt for early elections before he is also branded as an anti-democratic person happy to have a proxy army rule. But before that, he will have to devise a formula that both the government and Imran Khan can agree upon. This is not going to be easy as Imran Khan has emerged stronger and is in no mood to give concessions to the present government. Besides what makes his task even more daunting is that he doesn’t have a good rapport with Khan who fired Munir  as Pakistan’s spy chief.  The given scenario leaves not many choices for the new General and how he maneuvers would decide the future of Pakistan.