NEW YORK: Despite being among one of the world’s worst performers when it comes to democracy, and holding up a failing record of human rights violations, Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif defended the country’s ‘hybrid model’ of governance where the army and civilian leadership stand hand in glove in running the country.
He made the remarks in an interview to British-American journalist Mehdi Hasan and while defending Pakistan, he called US democracy ‘deep state’ and tried to brush away the claims of military might in governance.
When asked by Hasan, “It’s a strange system you have in Pakistan. I think you’ve called it a hybrid model — where the military and civilian leaders effectively share power. But the military leaders are really the ones in charge, are they not? In most countries, the head of the army answers to the defence minister. In your country you, the defence minister, answer to the head of the army, don’t you? Asim Munir is a more powerful person than you are”.
Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif:
Every country has a deep state. In our country, four military rulers have come and they are more visible, this is a hybrid system.
If Asim Munir disagrees with me on something, we create a consensus. pic.twitter.com/EMfAWa8Iws
— Clash Report (@clashreport) September 27, 2025
Khawaja Asif refused, saying, “No, it’s not like that… I’m a political appointee, I’m a political worker, you know”. When confronted with the example of how in the US, Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of War, has the power to fire American generals, but the same cannot be said for Pakistan, Asif sourly retorted, saying, “They (US) have a different model over here. It’s called deep state”.
On Hasan further saying, “In your country (Pakistan) the deep state’s in charge. That’s what the accusation is”, Asif put the blame on past leadership, stating, “You can say that because of our military rulers-it is more visible…” On being further probed as to where the power lies in Pakistan, Asif retorted by calling it “hybrid”.
Earlier this year, Khawaja Asif, had spoken in glowing terms about the ‘hybrid regime’ that currently runs the country, Dawn reported. As per Dawn, the term is used to describe the informal power-sharing arrangement, whereby the military holds a significant influence on the civilian leadership, and has an important voice in the way the affairs of the state are managed.
According to Dawn, in an interview to Arab News, Asif had described the hybrid system of despite not being an ideal democratic government, yet “doing wonders”, calling it a “practical necessity” until Pakistan’s economic and governance problems are resolved.
When asked by Hasan about power-sharing further, “So it’s equal? You and Asim Munir disagree on something, who gets the last word? Let’s say you want to go left and he wants to go right. Who wins that argument?” The Pakistan Defence Minister responded by calling the decision-making process to be based on consensus. “It’s not equal… We can agree to disagree. It is by consensus, whatever is taking place…”
On Thursday, the optics at the White House saw US President Donald Trump hosting Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Army Chief Asim Munir. US President Donald Trump on Thursday (local time) hosted the Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Asim Munir at the Oval Office in Washington. According to the Pak PMO, US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were also present. (ANI)
