CJCSC Gen Shamshad Mirza retires as Pakistan reorganises higher defence hierarchy

General Sahir Shamshad Mirza on Thursday retired as Pakistan's Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC), coinciding with the abolition of the top position under the recently passed 27th Constitutional Amendment.

The major tweak in the constitution reorganised the higher defence hierarchy by introducing the post of Chief of Defence Forces (CDF).

Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir will be the first CDF of the country. He was appointed as the army chief in 2024 for three years.


The 27th Constitutional Amendment allows Munir to stay in office as CDF till 2030.

The CJCSC position was introduced after the 1971 war to create synergy in the armed forces, but it failed to evolve into a powerful institution, and the real power remained in the hands of the army chief.

General Munir, who was promoted to the rank of Field Marshal just days after the four-day conflict with India, is only the second military officer in the country's history to be elevated to the position, after Field Marshal Ayub Khan in the 1960s.

The powerful Army, which has ruled the coup-prone country for more than half of its 78-plus years of existence, has hitherto wielded considerable power in matters of security and foreign policy.