New Delhi, Dec 5 (IANS) Field Marshal Asim Munir has been formally appointed as Pakistan’s first-ever Chief of Defence Forces (CDF), a newly created and powerful military position in the country.

The appointment is for a period of five years. The Pakistan President’s office said in an X post that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s summary recommending Munir for both Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) and Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) was approved. “President Asif Ali Zardari approved the appointment of Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir as COAS concurrently as CDF for 5 years,” the official X handle of the President of Pakistan said in the post.

The CDF position consolidates authority over all three service branches (Army, Navy, and Air Force) and includes oversight of the National Strategic Command, which manages the country’s nuclear weapons and missile systems, making Munir the single most powerful military figure in the country.

The appointment comes after a lot of speculation over Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s willingness to hand over more power to Asim Munir. The Sharif government was supposed to notify the appointment of the country’s first Chief of Defence Forces on November 29, the day Munir’s three-year term as army chief was set to end.

The Chief of Defence Forces’ role was established last month under the 27th Amendment to the Constitution, aiming to centralise military command. The new position replaces the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC), which has now been abolished.

Additionally, the Pakistani president also approved a two-year extension in the service of Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmad Babar Sidhu, which will take effect from March 19, 2026.

Asif Ali Zardari conveyed his best wishes to both officers of the Pakistan Armed Forces.

Asim Munir, who was promoted to the Field Marshal rank this year, will also simultaneously hold the office of the Chief of Army Staff, along with his duties as CDF. He is the first military officer in Pakistan’s history to hold both the five-star rank of Field Marshal and the combined command of COAS and CDF simultaneously. He is the second army officer in the country’s history to hold the Field Marshal title after General Ayub Khan, who led Pakistan during the 1965 war with India.

–IANS

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