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The Pakistan Armed Forces (Urdu: پاکستان مسلح افواج; pronounced [ˈpɑːkˌɪstaːn mʊˈsəlˌle (ɦ) əfˈwɑːd͡ʒ]) are the military forces of Pakistan.
- Pakistan Air Force ranks and insignia - Wikipedia
The ranking structure as well as rank insignia of the...
- Pakistan Air Force - Simple English Wikipedia, the free ...
Pakistan Air Force (Urdu: پاک فضائیہ, Pak Faza'ya) (PAF) is...
- Pakistan Armed Forces - Simple English Wikipedia, the free ...
The Pakistan Armed Forces (Urdu: پاک عسکری) are the overall...
- Pakistan Air Force ranks and insignia - Wikipedia
The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) (Urdu: پاک فِضائیہ, romanized: Pāk Fìzāʾiyah; pronounced [pɑːk fɪzɑːɪjəɦ]) [Note 1] is the aerial warfare branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces, tasked primarily with the aerial defence of Pakistan, with a secondary role of providing air support to the Pakistan Army and Pakistan Navy when ...
The Pakistan Navy (PN) (Urdu: پاکستان بحریہ; romanized: Pākistān Bahrí'a; pronounced [ˈpaːkɪstaːn baɦɽia]) is the naval warfare branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The Chief of the Naval Staff, a four-star admiral commands the navy.
The Pakistan Armed Forces (Urdu: پاک عسکری) are the overall unified military forces of Pakistan. The Pakistani military was first formed when the nation achieved independence from the United Kingdom in 1947. Its component branches are: Pakistan Army. Pakistan Navy.
- Overview
- Mission
- History
- UN Peacekeeping Missions
- Organization
- Combat doctrine
- Involvement in Pakistani society
- Personnel
- Equipment
The Pakistan Army (Urdu: پاک فوج Pak Fauj (IPA: Pɑkʰ fɒ~ɔd͡ʒ); reporting name: PA) is the land-based uniform service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The Pakistan Army came into existence after the independence of Pakistan in 1947. The Pakistan Army is a volunteer professional fighting force. According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) it has an active force of 725,000 personnel as of April 2013. In addition there were around 500,000 reserves bringing the total to 1,225,000 troops. The Constitution of Pakistan contains a provision for conscription, but it has never been imposed.
The primary mandate and mission of the army is to "dedicated to the service of the nation." Since establishment in 1947, the army (along with its inter–services: Navy, Marines and PAF) has been involved inthree wars with neighboring India and several border skirmishes with Afghanistan. Since 1947 it has maintained strong presence along with its inter-services in the Arab states during the past Arab-Israeli Wars, and aided the coalition in the first Gulf War. Recently, major joint-operations undertaken by the army include Operation Black Thunderstorm and Operation Rah-e-Nijat. Apart from conflicts, the army has been an active participant in UN missions and played a major role in rescuing trapped American soldiers from Mogadishu of Somalia in 1993 in Operation Gothic Serpent.
Pakistan Army serves as the land-based branch of the Pakistan Military. Chapter 2 of PART XII of Pakistani Constitution defines the purpose of the Army as:
1947–1958
The Pakistan Army was created on 30 June 1947 from the division of the British Indian Army. The then soon to be created Dominion of Pakistan received six armoured, eight artillery and eight infantry regiments compared to the 12 armoured, forty artillery and twenty one infantry regiments that went to India. Fearing that India would take over the state of Kashmir, irregulars, scouts and tribal groups entered the Muslim majority state of Kashmir to oppose the Maharaja of Kashmir 1947. In response to this, the Maharaja acceded to India. The Indian Armed Forces were then deployed to Kashmir. This led to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. Regular Army units joined the invasion later on but were stopped after the refusal of the army chief of staff, British officer General Sir Frank Messervy, to obey Pakistani leader Muhammed Ali Jinnah's orders to move the army into Kashmir. A ceasefire followed on UN intervention with Pakistan occupying the northwestern part of Kashmir and India occupying the rest. Later, during the 1950s, the Pakistan Army received large amounts of economic and military aid from the United States and Great Britain after signing two mutual defence treaties, the Baghdad Pact, which led to the formation of the Central Treaty Organization, and the South East Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO) in 1954. This aid greatly expanded the Pakistan Army from its modest beginnings. The sole division headquarters that went to Pakistan was the 7th. 8th and 9th Divisions were raised in 1947; 10, 12th and 14 Divisions were raised in 1948. 15 Div was raised in 1950. At some point before 1954, 6 Division was raised and 9 Division disbanded. 6 Division was disbanded at some point after 1954 as US assistance was available only for one armoured and six infantry divisions.
1958–1969
Main article: Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 Pakistan Army took over from politicians for the first time when General Ayub Khan came to power through a bloodless coup in 1958. He formed Convention Muslim League which includes Pakistan's first elected Prime Minister Z.A. Bhutto. Tensions with India continued in the 1960s and a brief border skirmish was fought near the Rann of Kutch area during April 1965. On the night of 6 September 1965 Indian Army attacked the Punjab Province of Pakistan, without an announcement, Pakistan hold them off, eventually capturing about 1200 km area inside India but a treaty was reached and the area was given back. The war ended with UN backed ceasefire and followed by Tashkent Declaration. According to the Library of Congress Country Studies conducted by the Federal Research Division of the United States, the war was inconclusive militarily. The war was militarily inconclusive; each side held prisoners and some territory belonging to the other. The Pakistan Army considers itself to have achieved a victory because it simply insists and ignores the treaty of Tashkent by saying it was arranged by USSR, who managed to hold off significantly larger force attacking Pakistani territory at different points, which the PA did not expect and was not prepared or equipped for. Indian sources as well as neutral sources disagree and call the end result an Indian victory. All though Pakistan failed in gaining all of Kashmir, highly effective support from the Pakistan Air Force, which was unexpected, is often considered to have neutralized India's advantage in quantity of forces. The accurate artillery fire provided by the PA artillery units is also stated to have played a significant role. An uprising against General Ayub Khan during 1968 and 1969 resulted in Ayub Khan relinquishing his office as President and Chief of Army Staff in favor of General Yahya Khan, who assumed power in 1969. 16 Division, 18 Division and 23 Division were raised at some point between 1966 and 1969 and 9 Division was re-raised during this period.
1969–1971
Main articles: 1971 Bangladesh atrocities, Operation Searchlight, and Bangladesh Liberation War During the rule of Yahya Khan, the people of East Pakistan protested against various political and economic disparities that had been imposed on them by West Pakistan and massive civil unrest broke out in East Pakistan. During operations against these rebels, called Operation Searchlight, a faction of the Pakistan Army under General Yahya Khan was responsible for the 1971 Bangladesh atrocities. Beginning with the start of Operation Searchlight on 25 March 1971 and due to the Bangladesh Liberation War, there were numerous human rights abuses in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) perpetrated by the Pakistan Army, with support from local political and religious militias, especially against Hindus. Time magazine reported a high ranking U.S. official as saying "It is the most incredible, calculated thing since the days of the Nazis in Poland." The original plan envisioned taking control of the major cities on 26 March 1971, and then eliminating all opposition, political or military, within one month. The prolonged Bengali resistance was not anticipated by Pakistani planners. The main phase of Operation Searchlight ended with the fall of the last major town in Bengali hands in the mid of May. Soon heavy fighting broke out between Pakistani Army and Indian-backed Bengali freedom fighters, in this period the Pakistan Army killed estimated 3 million Bengali people. In December 1971. Pakistan attacked India's western air based that started the Pakistan India War of 1971 (also called the Bangladesh Liberation War). In eastern theater Pakistan Army was decimated by Indian Army and Bengali freedom fighters while in west front Pakistan Army was defeated in battles of Basanter and Longewalla. On 16 December 1971, Lt. Gen A. A. K. Niazi, CO of Pakistan Army forces located in East Pakistan signed the Instrument of Surrender. Over 93,000 Pakistani troops surrendered to the Indian forces, making it the largest surrender since World War II. In 1997 R. J. Rummel published a book, available on the web, called "Statistics of Democide: Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1900", In Chapter 8 called "Statistics Of Pakistan's Democide Estimates, Calculations, And Sources" he looks at the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. Rummel wrote: In East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) [the President of Pakistan, General Agha Mohammed Yahya Khan, and his top generals] also planned to murder its Bengali intellectual, cultural, and political elite. They also planned to indiscriminately murder hundreds of thousands of its Hindus and drive the rest into India. And they planned to destroy its economic base to insure that it would be subordinate to West Pakistan for at least a generation to come. This plan may be perceived as genocide. According to Maj. (Retd.) Agha Humayun Amin, Pakistan Army high command commanders had not seriously considered an Indian invasion of East Pakistan until December 1971 because it was presumed that the Indian military would not risk Chinese or U.S. intervention. Maj Mazhar states that the PA's senior command failed to realise that the Chinese would be unable to intervene during the winter months of November to December 1971 period due to snowbound Himalayan passes and the U.S. had not made any real effort to persuade India against attacking East Pakistan.
In the wake of the new world power equilibrium a more complex security environment has emerged. It is characterised by growing national power politics and state implosions which have necessitated involvement of the United Nations peace keeping forces for conflict resolution.
The United Nations has been undertaking peace keeping operations since its inception, but the need for employment of peace keeping forces has increased significantly since the Gulf War. In 1992 there were 11,000 Blue Berets deployed around the world, by the end of the year the figure rose to 52,000. Presently it exceeds 80,000 troops.
The table below shows the current deployment of Pakistani Forces in UN Peacekeeping missions.
•The total amount of troops serving currently in peacekeeping missions is 10,173 (as of March 2007).
Command structure
The President of Pakistan is the civilian supreme commander of the Pakistan Armed Forces by statute, while the Prime Minister of Pakistan served as the Chief Executive of Pakistan Armed Forces, both people-elected civilians, Prime Minister and President, maintains the civilian control of the military. The Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), a four-star general, is the highest general officer (unless the four-star general is Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee), a field and operational commander as well as a highest army four-star general officer, directs the non-combat and combatant operations from army combatant headquarters in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad. The Principal Staff Officers (PSO) assisting him in his duties at the Lieutenant-General level include a Chief of General Staff (CGS), under whom the Military Operations and Intelligence Directorates function; the Chief of Logistics Staff (CLS); the Adjutant General (AG); the Quarter-Master General (QMG); the Inspector General of Training and Evaluation (IGT and E); the Military Secretary (MS); and the Engineer-in-Chief, a top army topographer. A major reorganisation in GHQ was done in September 2008 under General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, when two new PSO positions were introduced: the Inspector General Arms and the Inspector General Communications and IT, thus raising the number of PSO's to eight. The headquarters function also includes the Judge Advocate General (JAG), and the Comptroller of Civilian Personnel, the Engineer-in-Chief of the Corps of Engineers who is also head of Military Engineering Service (MES), all of them also report to the Chief of the Army Staff. Although most of the officer corps were generally Muslim by the 1970s, there were still serving Christian officers the highest rank being attained by Major General Julian Peter who served as the General Officer Commanding of a Division and as general staff officer at Army Headquarters up-till 2006.
Commissioned officers rank
Main article: Army ranks of Pakistan The rank structure is patterned on the British Army model. After Join Pak Army the serving persons have to wear these ranks. It consists of commissioned officers, non-commissioned officers and the junior commissioned officers. Non-commissioned officers wear respective regimental color chevrons on the right sleeve. Centre point of the uppermost chevron must remain 10 cm from the point of the shoulder. Company / battalion appointments wear the appointments badges on the right wrist.
Subdivision by profession
The Pakistan Army is divided into two main branches, which are Arms and Services.
The Pakistan Army has developed a doctrine called the Riposte which is a limited "offensive-defence" doctrine. It has refined it consistently starting in 1989 during the "Exercise Zarb-e-Momin". This doctrine is fully focused towards Pakistan's archenemy, India.
The doctrine is derived from several factors:
1.The vulnerability of Pakistan is that so many of its major population centres and politically and military sensitive targets lie very close to the border with India. As such Pakistan can ill-afford to lose large territories to an Indian attack.
2.‘Strategic depth’ in the form of a friendly Afghanistan is deemed vital by military planners.
3.India has substantially enhanced its offensive capabilities, with the Cold Start Doctrine. Any counterattack would be very tricky against the large number of Indian troops involved. The response of the Pakistani army includes the development of the Nasr missile.
4.Holding formations in both India and Pakistan can man their forward defensive positions and fortifications in less than 24 hours. However, Corps level reserves with large stockpiles of munitions will take between 24 to 72 hours for mobilisation after being given their orders. In this regard, both armies will be evenly matched in the first 24 hours since the Pakistani units have to travel a shorter distance to their forward positions.
See also: 2009 refugee crisis in Pakistan
The Pakistan Army has played an integral part in the civil society of Pakistan, almost since its inception. In 1996, General Jehangir Karamat described Pakistan armed forces' relations with the society:
In times of natural disaster, such as the great floods of 1992 or the October 2005 devastating earthquake, army engineers, medical and logistics personnel, and the armed forces played a major role in bringing relief and supplies.
The army also engaged in extensive corporate activities. Most of these enterprises, such as stud and dairy farms, were for the army's own use, but others performed functions in local civilian economy such as bakeries, security services and banking. Army factories produced such goods as sugar, fertiliser, and brass castings and sold them to civilian consumers albeit at prices higher than those charged from military personnel.
Personnel training Uniforms
Pakistan Army uniforms closely resemble those of the British Armed Forces. The principal colour is greenish brown. Dress uniforms were worn mostly on formal occasions. The service uniform was worn for daily duty. The service uniform for the ground forces was khaki (sand/tan) cotton. Officers purchased their uniforms, but enlisted personnel received a standard uniform issue, which consisted of service and field uniforms, fatigues, and in some cases, dress uniforms. The uniforms consisted of shirt, trousers, sweater, jacket or blouse, and boots. There is also a white dress uniform. The fatigues were the same for winter and summer. Heavy winter gear was issued as needed. Headgear included a service cap for dress and semi-dress and a field cap worn with fatigues. Army personnel also wear berets, usually worn in lieu of the service cap. Brown and black and more recently former US BDU style camouflage fatigues are worn by army troop units. The uniform of a Pakistan army soldier exhibits much information i.e. Pakistan Army has introduced pixilated arid camouflage pattern in uniform and resized qualification badges which are now colourless and service ribbons are no longer worn along with the ranks are now embroidered and are on chest. The name is embroidered and is on right pocket and the left pocket displays embroidered Pak Army. Flag of Pakistan is placed over the black embroidered formation sign on the left arm and adventure course insignias are put up as per ADR for khaki uniform, decorations & awards and the ranks.
Ethnic composition
Traditionally, the army was a predominantly Punjabi force because of its dominant Population (Punjab is the most populous province of Pakistan, with approximately 45% of the country's total population). In British India, three districts: Jhelum, Rawalpindi, and Campbellpur (now Attock) dominated the recruitment flows. By 2007 the percentage representation in the Pakistan Army as a whole was approximate as follows: Punjabis: 53.19% Pashtuns: 21% Sindhis: 13.5% Kashmiris: 9.11% Balochis: 3.2% . Extensive efforts have been made to bring Balochis and Sindhis on par with other ethnicities, presently the army recruitment system is enlisting personnel district-wise irrespective of provincial boundaries. This decision has given a fair chance to every citizen of Pakistan to be part of the Pakistan Army as each district possesses a fixed percentage of seats in all branches of the army, as per census records. Large numbers of men from Sindh and Balochistan have joined the ranks of the army and have proved their commitment and bravery to the national cause in Kargil and the ongoing global war on terrorism.
Women and minorities
Main article: Women in the Pakistan Armed Forces Women have served in the Pakistan Army since its foundation. Currently, there is a sizeable number of Women serving in the army. Most women are recruited in the regular Army to perform medical and educational work. There is also a Women's Guard section of Pakistan's National Guard where women are trained in nursing, welfare and clerical work and there are also women recruited in very limited numbers for the Janbaz Force. Only recently has Pakistan began to recruit women for combat positions and the Elite Anti-Terrorist Force In 2007, several female graduates were nominated to be Sky Marshals for Pakistan based airlines. In addition recently eight of the 41 cadets from the Pakistan Military Academy at Kakul became the first women guards of honour. Pakistan is the only country in the Islamic world to have female Major Generals in the Army. Major General Shahida Badshah was Pakistan’s first female two-star general. Recruitment is nationwide and the army attempts to maintain an ethnic balance but most enlisted recruits, as in British times, come from a few districts in northern Punjab Province and the adjacent Azad Jammu and Kashmir and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Pakistan's Officer Corps are also mostly from Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and of middle-class, rural backgrounds.[citation needed] Non Muslim Pakistanis are allowed to sit in all examinations. There have been numerous Christians who have risen to the rank of Brigadier; and in the 1990 the first Christian promoted to the rank of Major General was Julian Peter who commanded the 14th Div in Okara Cantt. In 2009 brigadier Noel Israel Khokhar, was also promoted to rank of Major General. Capt. Hercharn Singh, the first Sikh as Commissioned Officer in Pakistan Army. He was commissioned in Baloch Regiment. Currently, he's serving as an ADC to a Corps Commander.
Main article: Modern equipment and uniform of the Pakistan Army
The equipment currently in use by the Pakistan Army is divided into the following main sections: small arms, armour, artillery, aircraft and air defence systems. Most equipment of the Pakistan Army tend to be either of Chinese, European or American designs.
Pakistan Air Force (Urdu: پاک فضائیہ, Pak Faza'ya) (PAF) is the Aviation branch of the Pakistan armed forces and is responsible for defending Pakistani air-space from intrusions. It also provides air support for ground troops.
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The Pakistan Air Force (Urdu language: پاک فِضائیہ — Pāk Fizāʾiyah, Urdu: [pɑːk fɪzɑːɪjəɦ]), abbreviated as PAF, is the air warfare branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces, primarily tasked with the aerial defence of Islamic Republic of Pakistan with a secondary role of providing air logistics support to the Pakistan Army and the Pakistan Navy.
