The Pakistan Armed Forces are the 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 several paramilitary forces such as the National Guard and the Civil Armed Forces. 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 President of Pakistan is the Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Armed Forces and the chain of command 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).
The National Security Council is a federal institutional and consultative body chaired by the Prime Minister of Pakistan as its chairman. The NSC is a principal forum that is mandated for considering national security and foreign policy matters with the senior national security advisers and Cabinet ministers. The idea and inception of National Security Council was first conceived in 1969 under the President Yahya Khan, its functions were to advise and assist the president and prime minister on national security and foreign policies.
Pakistan is one of nine states that possess nuclear weapons. Pakistan began developing nuclear weapons in January 1972 under Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who delegated the program to the Chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) Munir Ahmad Khan with a commitment to having the device ready by the end of 1976. Since PAEC, which consisted of over twenty laboratories and projects under reactor physicist Munir Ahmad Khan, was falling behind schedule and having considerable difficulty producing fissile material, Abdul Qadeer Khan, a metallurgist working on centrifuge enrichment for Urenco, joined the program at the behest of the Bhutto administration by the end of 1974. Producing fissile material was pivotal to the Kahuta Project's success and thus to Pakistan obtaining the capability to detonate a nuclear weapon by the end of 1984.
The Strategic Forces Command (SFC), sometimes called Strategic Nuclear Command, forms part of India's Nuclear Command Authority (NCA). It is responsible for the management and administration of the country's tactical and strategic nuclear weapons stockpile. It was created on 4 January 2003 by the Vajpayee Government. Air Marshal Teja Mohan Asthana became its first commander-in-chief.
General Jehangir Karamat is a retired four-star rank military officer, diplomat, public intellectual, and a former professor of political science at the National Defense University. Prior to serving as a Chief of Army Staff, he also served as the 9th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee from 1997 to 1998.
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 the Army Staff and Chief of the Air Staff and the Chief of the Naval Staff, Commandant of Marines, DG Coast Guards and Strategic Plans Division, and commanders of the service branches in the Civil Armed Forces and the National Guard.
The Nuclear Command Authority (NCA) of India is the authority responsible for command, control and operational decisions regarding India's nuclear weapons programme. It comprises a Political Council headed by the Prime Minister of India and an Executive Council headed by the National Security Advisor.
Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) is a federally funded independent governmental agency, concerned with research and development of nuclear power, promotion of nuclear science, energy conservation and the peaceful use of nuclear technology.
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 Economic Coordination Committee, is a principle federal institution and a consultative forum used by the people-elected Prime Minister of Pakistan as its chairman, for concerning matters of state's economic security, geoeconomic, political economic and financial endowment issues. Although it is often chaired by the Finance Minister and the senior economic officials as its members on multiple occasions, the key executive authorization on key economic policies are made by the Prime Minister of Pakistan who reserves the right call upon and serves as the chairman of the ECC.
General Tariq MajidNI(M) HI(M) LoH is a retired four-star rank army general in the Pakistan Army who served as the 13th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee from 2007 to 2010, the principal and highest-ranking military adviser in the Pakistan Armed Forces.
The political history of Pakistan is the narrative and analysis of political events, ideas, movements, and leaders of Pakistan. Pakistan gained independence from the United Kingdom on 14 August 1947, when the Presidencies and provinces of British India were divided by the United Kingdom, in a region which is commonly referred to as the Indian subcontinent. Since its independence, Pakistan has had a colorful yet turbulent political history at times, often characterized by martial law and inefficient leadership.
The Army Strategic Forces Command is a strategic and missile formation of the Pakistan Army. Headquartered at the Joint Staff HQ in Chaklala near Rawalpindi, the strategic command controls the land-based ballistics and cruise missile systems—both nuclear and conventional.
The Ministry of Defence, is an executive ministry of the federal Government of Pakistan, tasked in defending national interests and territorial integrity of Pakistan. The MoD oversees mission execution of its policies and supervises all agencies of the government directly related to the national security and the Pakistan Armed Forces.
Admiral Iftikhar Ahmed SiroheyNI(M) HI(M) SBt OM BJSN LoM is a retired four-star rank admiral, strategist, and a memoirist who is currently tenuring his fellowship at the Institute of Strategic Studies (ISS) in Islamabad, Pakistan.
The Full spectrum deterrence (previously known as Minimum Credible Deterrence is the defence and strategic principle on which the atomic weapons programme of Pakistan is based. This doctrine is not a part of the nuclear doctrine, which is designed for the use of the atomic weapons in a full-scale declared war if the conditions of the doctrine are surpassed. Instead, the policy of the Minimum Credible Deterrence falls under minimal deterrence as an inverse to the Mutually Assured Destruction, which is widely regarded as designed to dissuade India from taking any military actions against Pakistan, as it did in 1971, when Pakistan started the war. Pakistan refuses to adopt No first use policy, while the other regional powers, India and China, have adopted the policy. Pakistan's foreign minister Shamshad Ahmad had warned that if Pakistan is ever invaded or attacked, it will use "any weapon in its arsenal" to defend itself.
The Cabinet Committee on National Security (CCNS or C2NS), (Urdu: کابینہ کمیٹی قومی سلامتی) previously known as the Defence Committee of Cabinet, is the principal federal institution and consultative forum used by the people-elected Prime Minister of Pakistan for concerning matters of state's national security, geopolitical, geostrategic, and foreign policy matters with the Prime minister's chief military advisers, senior government advisers and senior Cabinet ministers.
The Strategic Plans Division Force is a paramilitary unit responsible for safeguarding Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, including both tactical and strategic nuclear weapons, as well as the security of nuclear facilities where these weapons and materials are produced and stored.
The Integrated Defence Staff (IDS) is an organisation responsible for fostering coordination and enabling prioritisation across the different branches of the Indian Armed Forces. It is composed of representatives from the Indian Army, Indian Navy, Indian Air Force, Ministry of External Affairs, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Finance. The IDS is headed by Chief of Integrated Defence Staff along with Deputy Chiefs of Integrated Defence Staff. On December 24, 2019, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) established the post of Chief of Defence Staff, a four-star general, a tri-service Chief, that shall lead the defence forces as well as play the role of head of the Department of Military Affairs. The body advises and assists the Chief of Defence Staff.
The Defence Space Agency (DSA) is an integrated tri-services agency of the Indian Armed Forces headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India. The agency is tasked with operating the space-warfare and Satellite Intelligence assets of India. The DSA draws personnel from all three branches of the Armed Forces.
