Hard State |
In the space of a single week, Chief of Defence Forces Field Marshal Asim Munir delivered three speeches at three different venues, each aimed at a distinct audience and each carrying a clear strategic message. Read together, they amount to a coherent statement of Pakistan’s emerging strategic doctrine and deserve to be understood as such.
The first address was delivered at the National Ulema Mashaikh Conference, a gathering of clerics from across Pakistan. There, the Field Marshal stressed that protecting citizens is the foremost duty of the state, a responsibility rooted in religious injunction as much as constitutional obligation. He made it explicit that the declaration of jihad rests solely with the state for the defence of its people, not with individuals and certainly not with Afghan........