Ex-Pakistan army officer levels bombshell charges against Asim Munir, reveals Field Marshal's 'real ambition'

Pakistan army chief Asim Munir (File)

Former Pakistani army officer and whistleblower Major (Retd) Adil Raja has mounted a no-holds barred attack on Asim Munir and the ISI for orchestrating a coordinated campaign to silence dissenters abroad using foreign legal systems.

In an interview to India Today, Raja alleged that Pakistan army chief General Asim Munir is directly involved in what he called a “strategic lawsuit against public participation” (SLAPP) — a defamation case filed in the UK by serving Brigadier Rashid Nasir, the ISI’s Punjab sector commander.

“This is part of the lawfare launched against me by the Pakistani military establishment and its intelligence arm, the ISI, with whom I was once working,” Raja said, days before his trial begins in a London court on July 21.

Raja, who now lives in exile in the UK, told India Today that the Pakistani state failed to prosecute him on terrorism charges after a nine-month investigation by UK counterterrorism police, which ended with his complete exoneration.

He alleged that the current defamation trial is the Pakistan army’s fallback strategy to target him.

“They couldn’t get me under counterterrorism, so now they’re trying their luck in the courts. The UK is the libel tourism capital of the world — as King’s Counsel Geoffrey Robertson says,” he added.

Raja directly accused General Munir and DG ISI Lt Gen Asim Malik of abusing the UK’s plaintiff-friendly libel laws to export Pakistan’s repression and cover up the military’s crimes, including political engineering, judicial manipulation and systemic suppression of civil liberties.

'ISI using all its power ...'

Raja told India Today that his family in Pakistan has faced severe retaliation, adding that his mother has been placed under de facto house arrest and had her passport revoked to prevent him from returning.

“She’s practically under house arrest — her passports have been cancelled. My entire family’s nationalities have been blocked,” he said.

He also revealed that one of his witnesses in the case, Shahzad Akbar, was attacked with acid in the UK — an incident he links to ISI-backed intimidation.

“The ISI is using all its power to silence this. They just don’t want any coverage, because it exposes their soft belly," he told India Today.

'My only crime was ...'

The former officer, who was court-martialed in absentia and sentenced to 14 years under Pakistan’s Official Secrets Act, said his only crime was exposing the military’s hold over Pakistan’s political system.

“I was committing the cardinal sin: exposing the crimes of my institution — regime change operations, controlling the government, judicial manipulation, and corruption,” he said.

He squarely blamed General Munir for Pakistan’s democratic backsliding.

“Pakistan is an authoritarian state ... If you try to speak up, you end up in jail like Imran Khan.”

Raja claimed that Munir’s real ambition is to seize absolute power through engineered instability.

“The plan is allegedly by the Army Chief, Asim Munir — putting his brother-in-law as PM, himself or another general as president — a Musharraf-style accountability push to claim they cleaned up Pakistan,” he alleged.

Despite the risks, Raja said he remains committed to the fight for democratic rights in Pakistan. Living under police protection in the UK, he said he is fully aware of the stakes.

“I live at a police-protected address. I’m in hiding, can’t move freely… But I have to fight. I took an oath to the people, not the generals.”

When asked who he would hold responsible if anything were to happen to him, Raja said: “The Pakistani military establishment. The Army Chief Asim Munir. The DG ISI, Asim Malik. Major General Faisal Nasir. Brigadier Rashid Nasir. They are behind the threats.”