AFTER the passage of 27th Amendment bill command structure of armed forces has been restructured. Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir has been appointed the country’s first Chief of Defense Forces while also serving as Chief of Army staff COAS. After some controversy and usual conspiracy theories on the advice of Prime Minister President of Pakistan formally made the announcement. With this approval, Asim Munir becomes the first official to assume newly created role of Chief of Defense Forces under revamped constitutional and legal framework.
The creation of CDF position, and consolidation of military leadership under Asim Munir, follow sweeping constitutional and legal changes brought by the 27th Constitutional Amendment last month. The latest 27th amendment to the constitution amended and revised article 243 that governs command and control of country’s armed forces. Now the office of Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff committee stands abolished after nearly fifty years of its creationand in its place new position of Chief of Defense Forces has been created. The COAS is now CDF and institutional role of all three armed forces that is army navy and air force has been merged under a single command. The Parliament of Pakistan has passed amendments to the army act, Air Force Act and Navy act to make these changes possible. A new post of Commander National Strategic Command (CNSC) has been introduced, responsible for strategic forces coordination. Appointment to this post will be on the recommendation of the CDF, making the CDF top uniformed official across operational, administrative and strategic levels. All officers who reach the level of a five star general such as a field Marshall, Marshall of the air or Admiral of the Fleet will enjoy life time status, privileges and legal protection as constitutional office holders
All these privileges are embedded in law that gives top officials of armed forces a level of permanence never given to them before in constitutional history of country. Field Marshall Asim Munir is now the Chief of Defense Forces with complete jurisdiction over the army navy and Air Force and the largely ceremonial post of CJCSC has been done away with. The military chain of command has now been centralized constitutionally operational, administrative and strategic control is now held by a single office and thus Pakistan’s military leadership structure has been fundamentally altered. Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Sidhu’s extended tenure ensures continuity at the air force’s helm through March 2028, providing institutional stability during the transition. The reforms raise significant implications for civil-military relations, checks and balances, and the oversight architecture of Pakistan’s armed forces and judiciary.”For me, this amendment is the latest indication, perhaps the strongest yet, that Pakistan is now experiencing not a hybrid system, but a post-hybrid system,” says Michael Kugelman, former director of the Wilson Center’s South Asia Institute in Washington.
“We’re essentially looking at a situation where the civil-military imbalance is about as imbalanced as it could possibly be. Our history is replete with oscillation between civilian autonomy to overt control under military rulers such as Gen Pervez Musharraf and Gen Zia-ul-Haque and this balance between civil and military has been dubbed as hybrid rule.
Official news agency, the Associated Press of Pakistan, cited Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif as saying that the changes were part of a broader reform agenda to ensure Pakistan’s defense keeps pace with modern warfare requirements. But others see it as ceding power to the military. “There is no balance between the military and the civilians, says Munizae Jahangir, journalist and co-chair of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.
“They have tilted again that power dynamic towards the military and empowered the military at a time when the military needed to be reined in.”Perhaps the most controversial innovation lies in the clauses granting life-long constitutional protection to officers elevated to five-star ranks — field marshal, marshal of the air force, or admiral of the fleet.“Creating lifetime immunities for military officers upends the very idea of civilian supremacy”. The supporters of the amendment, including government ministers, argue the changes merely formalize existing practices. Ultimately, the question is not whether Pakistan needs a modernized defense structure. However, it definitely needs to be updated. The proposed amendment also creates the post of commander of the National Strategic Command (NSC), responsible, among other things, for the country’s nuclear command. The head of the NSC would be appointed only from the army in consultation with the army chief/CDF. The new command structure of the armed forces is nothing new in the world almost all modern armed forces follow the same pattern of tri service integration. The USA adopted this structure in 1986 and the UK has adopted the Chief of Defense staff model since 1959, India introduced the concept in 2019. The Chinese, Israelis and Russians also follow the same integrated command structure where the jointness and operational symbiosis translates into faster decision making.
—The writer is Professor of History, based in Islamabad
