India targeted Pakistan on the global stage for giving supreme powers to its Defence Chief, Asim Munir, advising Islamabad to “introspect” on the role of its armed forces in constitutional developments. Parvathaneni Harish, India’s representative at the United Nations, said the Shehbaz Sharif-led government enabled the military forces to “engineer a constitutional coup” through the recent 27th amendment, which gave “lifetime immunity to its chief of defence forces”.
“It could start by asking itself how it has let its armed forces engineer a constitutional coup through the 27th amendment and giving lifetime immunity to its Chief of Defence Forces,” Harish said.
Pakistan is “well advised to introspect about the rule of law,” he added while speaking at the UN Security Council open debate.
Pakistan Promotes Asim Munir
The 27th Amendment to the Pakistan Constitution in November 2025 virtually established the supremacy of the military. A month later, the Shehbaz Sharif government formally appointed Field Marshal Asim Munir as Pakistan’s first-ever Chief of Defence Forces (CDF), a newly created and powerful military position in a nuclear-armed country.
The appointment — which has put Munir at the helm of all three services (Army, Navy, and Air Force) — is for a period of five years. The CDF position not only consolidates authority over all three services but also gives him 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 new position also gave Munir legal cover equivalent to that of the country’s president. The field marshal, like the president, will be granted lifelong immunity from any legal prosecution. The protection has also been extended to the air force and navy chiefs. The amendments also reduce the government’s oversight over the military.
