The Pakistan Army (Urdu: پاک فوج) is the branch of the Pakistani Militaryresponsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the Pakistani military and is one of seven uniformed services.
The Pakistan Army came into existence after the Partition of India and the resulting independence of Pakistan in 1947. It is currently headed by General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. The Pakistan Army is a volunteer professional fighting force.[2] The provision of conscription exists in the Pakistani constitution, but it has never been imposed. It has an active force of 550,000 personnel.[1]
Since independence, the Army has been involved in four wars with neighbouring India and several border skirmishes with Afghanistan. It maintained division and brigade strength presences in some of the Arab countries during the past Arab-Israeli Wars, and aided the Coalition in the first Gulf War. Other major 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, Somalia in 1993in Operation Gothic Serpent.
The President of Pakistan is the Commander-in-Chief and supreme commander of the Army. The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), a General, a four star officer, technically subordinate to the Defence Minister and the defence secretary, commands the Army.
History:
1947–1958
The Pakistan Army was created on 30 June 1947[citation needed] with the division of the British Indian Army. 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.[verification needed] Fearing that India would take over the state of Kashmir, irregulars, scouts and tribal groups joined the Kashmiris opposing the Maharaja of Kashmir in 1947. This led to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947.[verification needed] Regular army units joined the invasion later on but were stopped after the refusal of the army chief of staff, British officer General Frank Messervy to obey Pakistani leader Jinnah's orders to move the army into Kashmir. A ceasefire followed on UN intervention with Pakistan occupying the northwestern part ofKashmir and India 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 the Baghdad Pact, which led to the formation of the Central Treaty Organisation, and the South East Asian Treaty Organisation (SEATO) in 1954. This aid greatly expanded the 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. 1st Armoured Divisionwas raised in 1956.
1958–1969
The Army seized control of Pakistan for the first time when General Ayub Khan came to power through a bloodless coup in 1958. Tensions with India continued in the 1960s and a brief border skirmish was fought near the Rann of Kutch area during April 1965. The Pakistan Army commanders seemed emboldened and carried out Operation Gibraltar, an attempt to take Kashmir that was launched later in the year and resulted in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965. After the Pakistani infiltrators were discovered, India counter-attacked and the 3-week war ended in a U.N. mandated ceasefire culminating in theTashkent Declaration.
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 favour 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.
1969–1977
During the rule of General Yahya Khan, the Bengali people of East Pakistan protested against various political and economic conditions that had been imposed on them by West Pakistan and massive civil unrest broke out in East Pakistan. While the Pakistan Army attempted to quell the uprisings, which included killings of tens of thousands of non-Bengalis by Bengali rebels,[4] incidents of human rights abuses were carried out by certain sections of the Pakistan Army in East Pakistan. India assisted Bangladeshi freedom figthers for months before beginning an invasion of East Pakistan in November 1971. The Pakistani military in East Pakistan was very heavily out-numbered following a policy that "East Pakistan's defence lay in West Pakistan" and by 16 December 1971, around 90,000 West Pakistanis were surrendered and taken Prisoner of War by the Indian Army. They included around 55,000 military personnel and around 35,000 government and civil employees. East Pakistan was made independent from West Pakistan, becoming the People's Republic of Bangladesh. Consequently, the Pakistan Army was modernised at a faster pace than ever before.
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. They failed to realise that the Chinese would be unable to intervene during the 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.[5]
1977–1999
In 1977 the Pakistan Army took over the government of Pakistan after a coup staged by General Zia ul-Haq, which saw the end of another democratically elected government. The event led to the hanging of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto after he was tried and proclaimed guilty of conspiracy of murdering a politician named Kasuri by Zia's handpicked judges.Zia ul-Haq renaged on his promise of holding elections within 90 days and ruled as a military dictator until his death in an air crash in 1988. At that time General Mohammad Iqbal Khan was a powerful general of Pakistan. He served as a joint chief from 1980 to 1984 and was the Chief Martial Law Officer at that time. If Zia ul-Haq would have resigned at that time he would be the next COAS.
Pakistan Army also helped the Saudi Arabian Government in regaining the control of the Kaaba with the help of French Commandos. Pakistani and French security forces retook Kaaba after the Grand Mosque Seizure, which left approximately 250 dead and 600 wounded. The Pakistanis and French were called in after poor results from assaults by the Saudi Arabian National Guard. 127 were reported to have been killed.
In the mid-1970s the Pakistan Army was involved in fighting an uprising in Balochistan. Various Balochi factions, some with the oblique support of the USSR, wanted independence or at least greater provincial rights. The rebellion was put down on the behest of the Bhutto government but the Army suffered heavy casualties. After Bhutto was deposed, the province returned to normalcy under General Rahimuddin.
1999–present
See also: War in North-West Pakistan
In October 1999 the Pakistan Army for the fourth time, overthrew a democratically elected government which resulted in additional sanctions being placed against Pakistan, resulting in General Pervez Musharraf coming to power in a bloodless coup. Musharraf stepped down as President in August 2008. On July 30, 2009, the Pakistan Supreme Court ruled that General Musharraf's imposition of the Emergency Rule in 2007 was unconstitutional.[6]
After the 9/11 attacks, Pakistan joined the US-led 'War on Terror' and helped the United States armed forces by severing ties with the Taliban and immediately deploying 72,000 troops along Pakistan's western border to capture or kill Taliban and al-Qaida militants fleeing from Afghanistan.
On the north western front, Pakistan initially garrisoned its troops in military bases and forts in the tribal areas. In May 2004 clashes erupted between the Pakistani troops and al-Qaeda's and other militants joined by local rebels and pro-Taliban forces. However, the offensive was poorly coordinated and the Pakistani Army suffered heavy casualties as well public support for the attack quickly evaporated. After a 2 year conflict from 2004 till 2006, the Pakistani military negotiated a ceasefire with the tribesmen from the region in which they pledged to hunt down al-Qaeda members, stop theTalibanization of the region and stop attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan. However, the militants did not hold up their end of the bargain and began to regroup and rebuild their strength from the previous 2 years of conflict.
The militants emboldened by their success in FATA moved into Islamabad where they sought to impose an extremist Sharia government on Pakistan. Their base of operations was the Lal Masjid in Islamabad. After a 6 month standoff fighting erupted again in July 2007 when the Pakistani Military decided to use force to end the Lal Masjid threat. Once the operation ended, the newly formed Pakistani Taliban, an umbrella group of all militants based in FATA vowed revenge and launched a wave of attacks and suicide bombings erupted all over North-West Pakistan and major Pakistani cities throughout 2007.
The militants then expanded their base of operations and moved into the neighbouring Swat Valley and imposed a very harsh Sharia law on the scenic valley. The Army launched an offensive to re-take the Swat Valley in 2007 but was unable to clear it of the militants who had fled into the mountains and waited for the Army to leave to take over the valley again. The militants then launched another wave of terrorist attacks inside Pakistan. The Pakistani government and military tried another peace deal with the militants in Swat Valley in 2008. This was roundly criticized in the West as abdicating to the militants. Initially pledging to lay down their arms if Sharia Law was implemented, the Pakistani Taliban used Swat Valley as a springboard to launch further attacks into neighbouring regions and reached to within 60 km of Islamabad.
The public opinion turned decisively against the Pakistani Taliban when a video showing a flogging of a girl by the Pakistani Taliban in Swat Valley finally forced the army to launch a deceive attack against the Taliban occupying Swat Valley in April 2009 after having received orders from the political leadership.[7] After heavy fighting the Swat Valley was largely pacified by July 2009 although there are isolated pockets of Taliban activity continues.
The next phase of Pakistani Army's offensive was the formidable Waziristan region. A US drone attack killed the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud in August. A power struggle engulfed the Pakistani Taliban for the whole of September but by October a new leader had emerged, Hakimullah Mehsud. Under his leadership, the Pakistani Taliban launched another wave of terrorist attacks throughout Pakistan killing hundreds of people. After a few weeks of softening up the targets with air strikes and artillery and mortar attacks, the Army backed by 30,000 troops moved in a three pronged attack on South Waziristan. The Army re-took South Waziristan and is currently thinking of expanding the campaign to North Waziristan.
In Balochistan, a low level insurgency broke out in 2005, in which the Balochis and their leader, Nawab Akbar Bugti demanded greater autonomy for Balochistan, greater compensation for the resources being used by Pakistan and criticized the government for the lack of development that had occurred there. One of Bugti's demands that put him into direct conflict with the military cabal was the trial of an army captain accused of raping a lady doctor posted at Sui.[8]
The Pakistani Army commenced operations in 2006, resulting in the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti. In an interview with journalist Hamid Mir, Bugti said "Read Mir Gul Khan Nasir's book on the history of Balochistan. The Baloch have always resisted unconstitutional measures. I'm not a traitor, the people who go against the Article 6 and take control of Pakistan are the real traitors. I, like Mir Gul Khan Nasir, only put forward the demand for Balochistan's rights. But in General Musharraf's view this is a crime punishable by death. (Bugti Laughs then continues) Your commando general will rest only after he martyrs me but after my martyrdom he will be held responsible. So now it's up to you people to either choose Musharraf or Pakistan. The choice is yours."[9][10]. The trial of the captain never took place and the doctor was exiled by Gen. Musharraf.
Rank Structure
The rank structure is patterned on the British Army model. Following the British Indian Army traditions, there are three junior commissioned officer (JCO) grades between enlisted and officer rank, for those who rise by promotion from among enlisted recruits. The Junior Commissioned Officer is a continuation of the former Viceroy's Commissioned Officer rank. During the early days of the Pakistan Army, there was a large cultural gap between officers and enlisted personnel. In the early 1990s, JCOs had wide responsibilities in the day-to-day supervision of lower grades, but they were a group that may have outlived its usefulness because officers have become "more Pakistani" and less dependent on British models and because the education level of enlisted men has risen. Promotion to JCO rank, however, remains a powerful incentive for enlisted personnel; thus, if JCO ranks are ever phased out, it will likely be a slow process.
Pakistani Officer Ranks | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rank | Field Marshal (5-Star) | General (4-Star) | Lieutenant General (3-Star) | Major General (2-Star) | Brigadier (1-Star) | |||||||
NATO equivalent | OF-10 | OF-9 | OF-8 | OF-7 | OF-6 | OF-5 | OF-4 | OF-3 | OF-2 | OF-1 | OF-1 | |
Uniform insignia |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | ||
The Pakistani defence service officers usually wear badges of rank on the shoulder epaulette
HERE IS SOME IMAGES OF OUR ARMY SOLDIERS
AND NOW A SONG FOR OUR SOLDIERS
No comments:
Post a Comment