Lt Gen Asim Munir to head ISI

Islamabad, Oct. 10: Lt. Gen. Asim Munir, who previously served as the head of the Military Intelligence (MI), will be the new chief of Pakistan’s powerful spy agency ISI, the Pakistan Army announced on Wednesday.

Munir was recently promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General by the Army Promotion Board headed by Chief of Army Staff Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa.

He replaces Lt. Gen Naveed Mukhtar and will assume charge on October 25. Mukhtar assumed the office of the Inter-Services Intelligence director general in December, 2016.

Munir has also served as the commander of the Force Command Northern Areas. He was conferred Hilal-i-Imtiaz, the second highest civilian award, in March 2018. The Army also anno-unced several key top level transfers after army

chief promoted five major generals to the next rank last month.

The statement by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the Pakistan Army, said that Lt. Gen. Muhammad Adnan was appointed as the new vice chief of the general staff, the Express Tribune reported.

The Army also assigned Lt. Gen. Nadeem Zaki as commander of Mangla Corps, a primary strike formation of the Pakistan Army. The corps is also known as 1 Strike Corps and is one of the two primary strike corps.

Lt. Gen. Shaheen Mazher was appointed as commander of the strategic Peshawar Corps, responsible for the tribal areas and the border with Afghanistan.

Three other officers were assigned to staff positions at the General Head-quarters.