Zehni Mareez: A profile of General Asim Munir

Pakistan has had military strongmen before, but none as psychologically disturbed, vindictive and dangerously self-centered as General Asim Munir. His mandate is not merely authoritarian; it is the story of a man consumed by a personal vendetta so corrosive that it dragged the entire country into political chaos, economic paralysis and a security collapse unprecedented since the creation of Pakistan.

A humiliation that became a national curse

Munir’s descent began in 2019, when Imran Khan removed him as ISI chief after just nine months – a humiliation that became deeply ingrained in the general’s psyche. What should have been a routine reshuffle became, for Munir, a lifelong injury. The military provided no official justification for the dismissal, but reports indicate it was related to Munir’s intention to investigate allegations of corruption involving Khan’s wife and then ask her for favors to advance his career – a tried-and-true tactic he used throughout his life to get ahead, while being unremarkable according to a retired officer I have known for a long time.

This impeachment hit Munir very hard, transforming a public embarrassment into an unyielding, hateful grudge. Analysts noted that he “never forgave” Khan and quietly harbored a desire for revenge. When the time came, in 2022, Munir displayed surgical malice, staging what has since been described as a “military-run parliamentary coup.” He overthrew an elected government to avenge his bruised ego.

A technical alien with alien dimensions

Munir’s chance for revenge came with geopolitical help. Multiple reports confirm that the military, under Munir’s leadership, played a pivotal role in removing Khan in order to repair deteriorating relations between Pakistan and the United States. In July 2021, even before the no-confidence vote, the military hired a former CIA station chief as a lobbyist in Washington without informing Khan’s civilian government — a clear sign that the military was pursuing its own foreign policy, which the generals always did despite their chronic lack of intelligence to grasp its intricacies. A leaked diplomatic cable from March 2022 suggests a senior US official said tensions would ease if Khan was removed via a parliamentary vote. Munir thus became the linchpin of a geopolitical realignment that cost Pakistan not only its democratically elected government but also public trust.

The great electoral heist

Once in charge, Munir’s obsession with Khan turned into a campaign of political extermination. Khan was taken from court, thrown into solitary confinement and buried under charges that have since failed under scrutiny. But the real spectacle came in the 2024 elections, when Munir transformed the democratic process into a grotesque parody: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the party Khan had built over thirty years, was barred from running. Its electoral symbol – the cricket bat – was confiscated and most of its senior leaders were imprisoned or disappeared. A minority government was installed even before the votes were counted.

Fraud was not merely alleged; it was documented. The Commonwealth Observer Group (COG) concluded that the elections took place under “conditions which appeared to limit fundamental political rights”. The COG report specifically noted that the refusal of the PTI’s electoral symbol and the condemnations of its leader before the vote systematically prevented a party from competing fairly.

Additionally, the report provides evidence that the official results (Forms 45) were altered, altering the vote count and “resulting in certain candidates being unlawfully removed as elected officials.” Pakistanis watched in utter disbelief as the most popular democratic leader was locked in a cage while a fabricated “mandate” was handed to a government widely seen as unelected. These were not the actions of a confident leader, but the convulsions of a man terrified of the will of the people.

Gilgit-Baltistan Rigging Experience

But Munir’s attack on democracy did not stop there. In June 2026, Gilgit-Baltistan became the next laboratory of its political engineering. Despite overwhelming public support for the PTI-backed independents, the region witnessed blatant and blatant theft of the people’s mandate. The ballot boxes were stuffed, the results were changed, and the losing candidates were declared winners through what residents openly described as “phantom votes.”

The PTI claimed that 13,000 security agents had been deployed from outside the region, disrupting communications networks and arresting activists to suppress the party’s campaign. The party claimed it actually won eight seats before the results were altered by vote stuffing and falsified voting. Videos showing poll workers being kicked out, mobile networks shut down and Form 45 tampered with spread on social media before the power outage. Once again, the PTI – the only party with genuine popular support in the region – was defeated not by voters but by the state apparatus. The message was unequivocal: elections in Pakistan would henceforth be decided in Rawalpindi, and no longer at the ballot box.

A security collapse of historic proportions

While Munir waged war against his political opponents, Pakistan fell into bloodshed. Terrorist attacks almost doubled between 2023 and 2024. According to the Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), the third quarter of 2024 alone saw a 90% increase in deaths due to terrorist violence. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa escapes state control; Balochistan is in open revolt. The Jaffar Express hostage crisis – with more than 400 passengers captured – stands as a monument to state failure. The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) hijacked the passenger train and the subsequent military operation resulted in the tragic loss of 21 innocent passengers and four soldiers before the suspected terrorists were killed. A rational army leader would have focused on national security. Munir focused on Imran Khan.

The general who mistook diplomacy for therapy

Amid the burning of Pakistan, Munir reinvented himself as a globe-trotting statesman. He appeared more often at photo ops with foreign leaders than with the families of fallen soldiers. Reports suggest he helped oust Khan to curry favor with Washington, even hiring a former CIA station chief as a lobbyist. Most recently, Pakistan reportedly signed a $1.2 million deal with a US lobbying firm to gain access to the Trump administration. A leaked diplomatic cable revealed that a US official said “all would be forgiven” if Khan was removed – essentially greenlighting the “army-staged coup” carried out by Munir.

As Pakistan burns, Munir focuses on his image on the world stage, regardless of the number of fallen soldiers on the home front. US President Donald Trump reportedly spoke directly to Munir on several occasions – not to mention the Pakistani prime minister – a moment that revealed who really runs the country. Pakistanis face bombing, inflation and state repression. Their military leader faces the cameras and pretends to be a savior on the world stage while his own house burns and lies in ruins.

Repression in Kashmir: the return of the ghost of Yahya

Munir’s moral collapse came to a head in Pakistan-administered Jammu and Kashmir in 2025. Under his command, the army opened fire on unarmed civilians protesting against economic hardship. Eyewitness accounts describe beatings, shootings and a level of brutality reminiscent of Yahya Khan’s darkest days. Since then, the repression has only intensified.

The latest public protests which began in early June 2026 followed public demands to fulfill promises that the government had already agreed to with the Awami Action Committee – a conglomerate of traders and civil society organizations demanding good governance and an end to corruption – and which have now been declared illegal under anti-terrorism legislation. Since early June, under the leadership of the military, dozens of villages have been attacked, young men kidnapped and at least 20 civilians killed in cold blood as Pakistani forces attacked agitated but mostly peaceful citizens, including lawyers and businessmen.

Instead of de-escalation, Asim Munir redoubled his efforts, turning AJK into another internal war zone like Balochistan or the former tribal areas straddling Afghanistan. Munir’s fixation on crushing dissent has created a new national crisis at a time when Pakistan can least afford it. History repeats itself – this time in the form of a grotesque farce.

“Zehni Mareez”: the insult that became a diagnosis

When Imran Khan called Asim Munir mentally unstable, army spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, in a routine press conference, responded by calling Khan a “Zehni Mareez” (a mentally ill person) – then winked at a female reporter while uttering the slur.

The moment went viral not because it was clever, but because it was revealing: a regime so shaken by criticism that it resorted to taunts on the playground. It was also a classic psychological projection. The accuser inadvertently described himself. In 2026, “Zehni Mareez” is no longer an insult; it has become a political diagnosis – shorthand for a leadership style defined by paranoia, insecurity and destructive obsession.

A nation held hostage by one man’s illusions

From his decade-long revenge fantasy to election theft; from the explosion of terrorism to the massacre of civilians in Kashmir; from the manipulations in Gilgit-Baltistan to the stifling of political life, the pattern is unequivocal. Asim Munir’s tenure reflects a deep detachment from democratic norms, national security priorities and basic human decency.

Pakistan today is politically stifled, economically crippled and socially fractured – all under the leadership of a man consumed by revenge and self-aggrandizement. “Zehni Mareez” is no longer an insult. It has become a political diagnosis – shorthand for a leadership style defined by paranoia, insecurity and destructive obsession.

History will not remember Asim Munir as a strong man. He will be remembered as the deluded architect of his own nation’s collapse – the man who set fire to the house he lived in, convinced that the flames would only burn his enemies.

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Murtaza Shibli is a former security analyst and media commentator with extensive experience in India and Pakistan. His career includes teaching at universities, serving the UN and ICRC, and contributing to leading newspapers including Guardian (UK), Telegraph India, Indian Express, News International, Express Tribune, Daily Jang (Urdu) and others.

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