Islamabad: Pakistan's former chief of intelligence agency ISI General Asim Munir on Tuesday (November 29) took charge as the country's new army chief. Munir will succeed General Qamar Javed Bajwa. Bajwa was appointed army chief in 2016 for three years. But in 2019, he was given a three-year extension.  

Munir took charge at a ceremony held at the General Headquarters and with this, he became the 17th Chairman of the Army Staff. Munir was named army chief by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on November 24. There have been several coups in Pakistan in the past, where the military has a lot of power in terms of security and foreign policy. Munir is the first Army chief to serve as the chairman of the two most powerful intelligence agencies Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Military Intelligence (MI). However, he was the ISI chief for the shortest time so far. Within 8 months, in 2019, lieutenant general Faiz Hamid was made ISI in his place at the behest of then PM Imran Khan.

It has been more than 75 years since Pakistan came into existence and the country has been ruled by the army for more than half of the time. In such a situation, the army has had a lot of interference in the security and foreign policy matters of the country. Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Monday got a farewell meeting with President Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. A 'Change of Command Ceremony' was held at the Pakistan Army headquarters in Rawalpindi on Tuesday, under which General Bajwa handed over the command of the army to his successor General Asim Munir.

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