Moral ascendancy is the influence one individual or group of individuals may hold over others through his perceived morals and character. [1] In law and order, commanding officers require this moral force to be able to exert control over those they lead. [1] In military situations, this moral ascendancy can extend to "I am the better army...I dominate you by my morale, training, capability". [2] Militarily moral ascendancy then is something to be gained and retained to achieve supremacy against the enemy. [3] According to the French army officer Du piq, "Moral force is the trump card for any military event because as events change the human elements of war remain unchanged".[ citation needed ]
The Pakistan Armed Forces are the combined military forces of Pakistan. It is the world's sixth-largest military measured by active military personnel and consist of three formally uniformed services—the Army, Navy, and the Air Force, which are backed by various constitutionally−sanctioned paramilitary forces. According to Global Firepower, the Pakistan Armed Forces are ranked as the 10th most powerful military in the world. A critical component to the armed forces' structure is the Strategic Plans Division Force, which is responsible for the maintenance and safeguarding of Pakistan's tactical and strategic nuclear weapons stockpile and assets. The chain of command of the Pakistan Armed Forces is organized under the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (JCSC) alongside the respective Chiefs of staffs of the Army, Navy, and Air Force. All branches are systemically coordinated during joint operations and missions under the Joint Staff Headquarters (JSHQ).
Field Marshal Muhammad Ayub Khan, was the second president of Pakistan. He was an army general who seized the presidency from Iskander Mirza in a coup in 1958, the first successful coup d'état in the country. Popular demonstrations and labour strikes supported by the protests in East Pakistan ultimately led to his forced resignation in 1969.
General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq was a four-star general who became the sixth President of Pakistan after declaring martial law in 1977. He served as the head of state from 1978 until his death in a plane crash in 1988. He remains the country's longest-serving head of state and Chief of Army Staff.
Ziaur Rahman was a Bangladesh Army officer and later turned politician who served as the President of Bangladesh from 1977 to 1981. He was assassinated on 30 May 1981 in Chittagong in an army coup d'état.
The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four-star general. Two officers have been conferred with the rank of field marshal, a five-star rank, which is a ceremonial position of great honour. The Indian Army originated from the armies of the East India Company, which eventually became the British Indian Army, and the armies of the princely states, which were merged into the national army after independence. The units and regiments of the Indian Army have diverse histories and have participated in a number of battles and campaigns around the world, earning many battle and theatre honours before and after Independence.
Sahibzada Sayyid Iskander Ali Mirza, CIE, OSS, OBE, was a Pakistani and Bengali general, businessman and civil servant who was the first president of Pakistan. He was elected in this capacity in 1956 until being dismissed by his appointed army commander General Ayub Khan in 1958.
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1947–1948 or the First Kashmir War was an armed conflict that was fought between India and Pakistan over the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir from 1947 to 1948. It was the first of four Indo-Pakistani wars that was fought between the two newly-independent nations. Pakistan precipitated the war a few weeks after its independence by launching tribal lashkar (militias) from Waziristan, in an effort to capture Kashmir and to preempt the possibility of its ruler joining India. The inconclusive result of the war still affects the geopolitics of both countries.
The Kargil War, also known as the Kargil conflict, was an armed conflict fought between India and Pakistan from May to July 1999 in the Kargil district of Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere along the Line of Control (LoC). In India, the conflict is also referred to as Operation Vijay, which was the name of the Indian military operation to clear out the Kargil sector. The Indian Air Force's role in acting jointly with Indian Army ground troops during the war was aimed at flushing out regular and irregular troops of the Pakistan Army from vacated Indian positions along the LoC. This particular operation was given the codename Operation Safed Sagar.
General Tikka Khan was a four-star army general in the Pakistan Army who was the first chief of army staff from 3 March 1972 until retiring on 1 March 1976.
Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi, HJ, MC, SPk, SK, popularly known as A.A.K. Niazi or General Niazi was a former lieutenant-general and later major-general in the Pakistan Army, known for commanding the Eastern Command of the Pakistan Army in East Pakistan during the Eastern and the Western Fronts of the Indo-Pakistani war until the unilateral surrendering on the 16 December 1971 to Lieutenant General Jagjit Singh Aurora (GOC-in-C) of the Eastern Command and the Bengali Liberation Forces.
The Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) is, in principle, the highest-ranking and senior most uniformed military officer, typically at four-star rank, in the Pakistan Armed Forces who serves as a Principal Staff Officer and a chief military adviser to the civilian government led by elected Prime minister of Pakistan and his/her National Security Council. The role of advisement is also extended to the elected members in the bicameral Parliament and the Ministry of Defence. The Chairman leads the meetings and coordinates the combined efforts of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (JCSC), comprising the Chairman, the Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Air Staff and the Chief of Naval Staff, Commandant of Marines, DG Coast Guards and Strategic Plans Division, and commanders of the service branches in the paramilitary command.
The Pakistan Army is the land service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The roots of its modern existence trace back to the British Indian Army that ceased to exist following the Partition of British India, which occurred as a result of the 1947 Indian Independence Act and established the Dominion of Pakistan on 14 August 1947 as a sovereign state independent from the United Kingdom. According to statistics provided by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in 2020, the Pakistan Army has approximately 560,000 active-duty personnel, supported by the Army Reserve and National Guard. Pakistani citizens can enlist for voluntary military service upon reaching 16 years of age, but cannot be deployed for combat until the age of 18 in accordance with the constitution of Pakistan.
Air Marshal Muhammad Asghar Khan (Retd.), was a Pakistani politician and an autobiographer, later a dissident serving the cause of pacifism, peace, and human rights.
The military history of Pakistan encompasses an immense panorama of conflicts and struggles extending for more than 2,000 years across areas constituting modern Pakistan and greater South Asia. The history of the modern-day military of Pakistan began in 1947, when Pakistan achieved its independence as a modern nation.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (JCSC), ; is an administrative body of senior high-ranking uniformed military leaders of the unified Pakistan Armed Forces who advises the civilian Government of Pakistan, National Security Council, Defence Minister, President and Prime minister of Pakistan on important military and non-military strategic matters. It is defined by statute, and consists of a Chairman, the military chiefs from Army, Navy and the Air Force: all four-star officers appointed by the President, on the advice of the Prime minister. The chairman is selected based on seniority and merit from the Chiefs of service of the three branches of the Pakistan Armed and Defense Services. Each service chief, outside their Joint Chiefs of Staff obligations, performs their duty directly for the Ministry of Defence.
The Frontier Force Regiment or KPK Force Regiment is one of six infantry regiments of the Pakistan Army. They are popularly known as the Piffers in reference to their military history as the PIF of the British Indian Army, or as the FF. The regiment takes its name from the historic North-West Frontier, a former province of British India and later Pakistan.
United Nations (UN) peacekeeping missions involving Pakistan cover about 70 operations throughout different parts of the world. Pakistan joined the United Nations on 30 September 1947, despite opposition from Afghanistan because of the Durand Line issue. The Pakistan Armed Forces are the third largest contributor of troops towards UN peacekeeping efforts, behind India and Ethiopia.
Lieutenant General Imran Ullah Khan is a retired Pakistan Army general. He remained the Governor of Balochistan province in PPP-led government from May 1994 to May 1997.
The General Headquarters (GHQ) is the headquarters of the Pakistan Army and is located in Rawalpindi, adjacent to the Joint Staff Headquarters. It was established on 14 August 1947 in the headquarters of the former Northern Command of the British Indian Army. In December 2017 it was announced that the Army would be moving to a new GHQ in neighbouring Islamabad.
The Pakistan Armed Forces have been criticized for eroding democratic processes in Pakistan, for being the largest business conglomeration in the country and for excessive control over the domestic and foreign policies of Pakistan. Critics of the Pakistan Army, such as human rights activist Manzoor Pashteen, have been jailed while like-minded Pakistani citizens are warned against criticizing the military establishment. In Pakistan, the military is considered a part of what is known as The Establishment; they control the state through a backdoor and are a part of a working deep state.