The Pakistan government has awarded civil and military honors to senior officials for their roles in the recent four-day conflict with India, dominated by India’s Operation Sindoor targeting terrorist infrastructure inside Pakistan. Army Chief Gen Asim Munir received the Hilal-e-Jurat, while Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Gen Sahir Shamshad Mirza was conferred the Nishan-e-Imtiaz. Air Chief Zaheer Ahmad Babar Sidhu, Naval Chief Admiral Naveed Ashraf, and 488 other personnel were also honored. Pakistan’s spate of military honors following the May 2025 conflict with India has drawn sharp criticism and scrutiny amid widespread perception of propaganda and misrepresentation. The government awarded numerous high military decorations, including the rare promotion of Army Chief Gen Asim Munir to Field Marshal—a rank historically reserved for victorious leaders—despite Pakistan suffering significant battlefield setbacks during India’s Operation Sindoor. This operation inflicted substantial damage on Pakistani terrorist infrastructure and airbases, downing six Pakistani aircraft, and compelling Pakistan to seek a ceasefire on U.S. advice amid mounting losses. Critics argue that these awards appear designed to justify an inflated and distorted narrative of success, sidelining the facts on the ground. This pattern aligns with Pakistan’s longstanding practice of reinforcing its official wartime narratives through grand military honors, even after wars with India that resulted in territorial losses, humiliating defeats, and the eventual division of Pakistan in 1971. The awards serve more as a tool for internal morale boosting and political shielding of senior commanders than as genuine recognition of battlefield achievements. Such symbolic gestures, released on Pakistan’s Independence Day, underscore the military establishment’s efforts to mask operational failures and shape a nationalistic counter-narrative despite clear evidence of inferior military performance.