Somewhere in Asim’s fulfilling fantasy, eager to protect and the void from depravation, the angel of death is likely to greet him.
This article predicts the mortality of the Chief of the Pakistan Army Asim Muneer. For the path chosen, Asim was doomed the day he was born. Asim Munir’s life expectancy is encompassed in his name.
Asim means the protector and Munir signifies shine. Combining both names, we have ‘protecting with shine and glitter.’ Alternatively said, protect or defend with a higher zeal. Hence, problematic.
From logic, a protector is the first line of defense. A protective cover over one’s mobile phone will usually take the first hit from a fumble onto the ground. Similarly, Julius Caesar became the protector of Rome, and he was killed. One standing up for protecting all has not worked.
Caesar wanted to protect Rome from the many (the senate.) Just as Caesar, Asim wants to protect himself from the many—the people. Asim Munir has become the protector of the corrupt and of those that have committed crimes against humanity—protecting the maniacal, deplorable and the irredeemable from the many. Logic requires him to die. Machine learning would likely conclude the same from available data.
Similarly, Imran became the protector for the remainder of Pakistan. To individually protect Pakistan from the army. Logic did not serve him well either. However, in the case of Imran, his life’s subsistence can become viable if all, a many to one relationship takes on the role of protection—if the people protecting Imran Khan relationship was to persist. Asim’s equation does not have the benefit of this element.
A mother is known to protect her child, but the survival of a mother and her child goes into jeopardy if she attempts to set out to protect a child outside of the bounds of nature’s intent. Such as, when a father and a husband dies, in Islam protection of a mother and her young child is guaranteed through the inheritance laws—they inherit 1/8 of the husband’s estate. This ratio protects the two from possibly the many or the powerful assuming the role of protection in their favor. From logic, protection belongs with the many or within divinity to Allah (God.)
Unless the power of the powerless—the people (the many) do not run supreme, Imran Khan will have no logical protection and Asim Munir will live in his delusion that he can survive his predicament. Asim Munir cannot defy the outcome of my previously stated logic, he becoming a protector, and what I explain next, he cannot dodge.
Protection belongs to God. Asim is used three times in Quran. The first instance of Asim is in verses 10:27, Surah Yunus,
“As for those who commit evil, the reward of an evil deed is its equivalent. Humiliation will cover them—with no one to protect them from Allah…”
In Pakistan, Asim is found to committing evil. Certainly Asim has earned humiliation and he has no one to protect him from Allah (God.) What God will do to Asim is uncertain. Will He stop at humiliation?
What I predict here is a chance. Chance or luck is associated with military leaders. Caesar’s lucky number was three (3). A person with a name Munir lucky number is also three (3). Will Asim’s luck run out as that of Caesar after the third month of March or in an Islamic Hijri calendar the third month Rabi’ al-Awwal. For we are in the eight month, the Shaaban, meaning Asim Munir’s luck has already run out per the Hijri calendar? Quite superstitious!
Maybe not! Caesar was assassinated in March (March 15, 44 B.C.E.), on the third month. Surely, the number three did not turn out quite a lucky number for the conqueror of Gaul. Did luck betray Caesar?
Will the coming of next March spell Asim’s demise? Analytics can predict, as I did on the first day of Asim Munir participating in the change of command ceremony that he will commit crimes against humanity just as Bajwa in my South Asia Journal article. However, analytics as in a chance cannot predict death in a precise manner. “What you have no knowledge of! I [Allah] warn you so you do not fall into ignorance.” –Quran. As for divinity, it cannot be second guessed.
We do know a human protector cannot take refuge. The second instance of Asim in Quran is used in Surah Hud, verse 11:43,
He replied, “I will take refuge on a mountain, which will protect me from the water.” Noah cried, “Today no one is protected from Allah’s decree except those to whom He shows mercy!” And the waves came between them, and his son was among the drowned.”
Will Allah show His Mercy to Asim Munir or will he be drowned? Of what I have no knowledge of, I will be a fool to predict and fall into ignorance. Nonetheless, the message around Asim is shockingly of a warning.
In the event Allah does not spare Asim Munir from His mercy, Allah has His message in Surah Ghfir verse 40:33. Asim is mentioned for the third time and the message is clear for Asim to take the plunge of death.
“the Day you will ˹try in vain to˺ turn your backs and run away, with no one to protect you from Allah. And whoever Allah leaves to stray will be left with no guide.”
The test of Asim’s life extinguishing is clearly predicted with a condition in 40:33. If the condition, Asim turning his back to run away holds true, the end of his life journey is spelled out. In a likely scenario when the people march on his home or GHQ, and should Asim eventually is forced to turn his back to run away, Allah won’t give his protection. Allah has taken away the mercy factor in the said surah, which He has offered before.
And those left astray are those left without guidance. They will once again overshadow God’s benefit of mercy because they would have consistently not remained idle of acts and would have repeatedly taken the path of ill; will cast a plunge of death from the statistical law of an individual taking on the cause of protection and from the ordained words. The souls of Asim and the thirteen generals relinquishing their bodies is likely.
Now the plot for protection emerges because all are maligned. The evil roots of Asim Munir extends from the former army chief Bajwa. Some accounts see Bajwa as a mole, which overlooks a different reality. Around 2019-18, my interaction with Bajwa left me with a sense that he was an upright soldier.
Around this time a few events happened. Those made me ponder over my previous assessment of Bajwa. I was left to contemplate why corruption was not repugnant to his inner soldier core. I did not know that Bajwa had embraced corruption.
According to ‘one’ source, Bajwa had investigated Director General FWO Lt. Gen. Afzal. After SIB’s inquiry, Afzal was imprisoned. The charge was transportation of Nawaz Sharif’s taxpayers stolen money into the U.A.E. using army air transport.
Gen. Afzal after incarcerated for about two weeks in a military brig informed Bajwa of other generals’ involvement in Nawaz Sharif’s money laundering scheme. Afzal threatened Bajwa to go public if the other thirteen (13) generals were not held accountable.
Bajwa seeing half of his generals as a party to organized money laundering scheme and corruption, made a poor decision. In a twist of faith, instead of Bajwa keeping Afzal in army prison for a Court Martial trial, Afzal was appointed as the Chairman National Disaster Management Authority.
There should be no mystery remaining why Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam and others in their political party constantly ridicule the top leadership of generals. The 2019 is in proximity to when the army generals openly advertised corruption as an acceptable norm in the country, and hence, the Sharif party bellowed the open ridicule of general without consequences. I am of the view that Bajwa turned dirty in the money laundry scheme and became a party to corruption. The clan of thirteen generals are at the helm.
To expect elections in Pakistan is the people’s delusion and for Asim to protect himself holds strength from his delusional choice that benefits from the history of Punjab. That is, the people of Punjab will never amount to the Ashraf ul-Makhluq (superior beings made from a beautiful mold) status.
In my view, Asim assists his depravity and self-examination from the people of Punjab’s political or a sense of civic depravity by historically submitting to a rule. For, Asim comes from the deprived lowest disadvantageous social column of Punjab—a damage good no longer capable of exhibiting character of one made from a beautiful mold.
In Asim’s rise “the concepts of social deprivation and social exclusion share a similar focus on the inability of individuals to participate fully in the life of their community or society.” –Source Science Direct, “Justice and Health.” Johannes Siegrist, in International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (Second Edition), 2015.
Asim’s depravity fails him of a “culturally normal interaction.” Asim is the consequence and his course-mates are the sensors not understanding the inner-Asim—the outcome. Thereby they named him a deceiver. In Asim’s rise, he earned a name of a “deceiver” at Staff College.
(Naming people with such distaste speaks to the stature of army and the caliber of recruits. Such behavior and these low value rendering names did not exist among the soldiers of the past. In my childhood days one soldier was called Napoleon for his short height—certainly not distasteful. These days one “psychotic” DG ISI is called Donald Duck for his larger lips. My mother would have washed my mouth with soap if I was a party to coining such names.)
Asim, a ranker, turning into an officer, with a depravation baggage he may carry; on one hand it is remarkable by becoming an officer, and it seems the society was fair to Asim. On the other hand, I suppose Asim had to deceive to cultivate a sense of an environment of fairness for him.
“Fairness as a social preference seems to play a relevant role in human evolution (Fehr and Fischbacher, 2003), and its disregard is likely to evoke strong negative emotions and stress reactions.” –Id.
Asim Munir’s father was a school teacher. His mode of transportation in his humble beginnings was a bicycle, which he upgraded to Honda 50cc. (A lawnmower runs stronger than it.) Asim’s late father claimed he would pass on his 50cc to his son. Life may not have been ‘fair’ because of economic strugles and cannot turn ‘fair’ for Asim if Khan comes back into power.
Research in “The Spirit Level” by Richard Wilkinson, shows there is a tight correlation between inequality and gun ownership and avenging honor. –“The surprising factors driving murder rates: income inequality and respect.” By Maia Szalavitz, The Guardian.
How much the research is applicable to Asim, who no longer suffers from social inequality. What is the childhood impact of inequality left upon Asim to avenge his honor with the guns he has as the army chief?
Asim Munir is certain to avenge and to protect. The ticker to Khan’s life is in his hand. Pulling the trigger will place him in his fantasy of glory, honor, paradise and self-actualization. Asim’s emotion and stress is his guidance towards his reaction to deal with Khan.
Somewhere in Asim’s fulfilling fantasy, eager to protect and the void from depravation, the angel of death is likely to greet him.
Mian Hameed is the author of his new book, MANIPULATION OF THE MIND: Our Children and Our Policy at Peril. He writes on South Asia and the U.S. policy.