Pakistan Army |
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Leadership |
Organisation and components |
Installations |
Personnel |
Equipment |
History and traditions |
Awards, decorations and badges |
The structure of the Pakistan Army is based on two distinct themes: operational and administrative. Operationally the Pakistan Army is divided into nine corps and three corps-level formations with areas of responsibility (AOR) ranging from the mountainous regions of the north to the desert and coastal regions of the south. Administratively it is divided in several regiments (details below). The General Headquarters (GHQ) of the Army is located in Rawalpindi in Punjab province. It is planned to be moved to the capital city of Islamabad nearby.
The Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), formerly called the Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C of the Pakistan Army), is challenged with the responsibility of commanding the Pakistan Army. The COAS operates from army headquarters in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad. The Principal Staff Officers (PSO's) assisting him in his duties at the lieutenant general level include:
Post | Name |
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Chief of Army Staff (COAS), GHQ. | General Asim Munir |
Chief of General Staff (CGS) | Lieutenant General Avais Dastgir |
Chief of Logistics Staff (CLS) | Lieutenant General Nauman Zakaria |
Inspector General Arms (IG Arms) | Lieutenant General Sarfraz Ahmed |
Adjutant General (AG) | Lieutenant General Muhammad Asim Malik |
Quarter Master General (QMG) | Lieutenant General Muhammad Ali |
Military Secretary (MS) | Lieutenant General Amer Ahsan Nawaz |
Master-General of Ordnance (MGO) | TBA |
Inspector General Training & Evaluation (IG T&E) | Lieutenant General Fayyaz Hussain Shah |
Inspector General Communications and Information Technology (IG C&IT) | Lieutenant General Muhammad Aqeel |
Engineer-in-Chief (E-in-C) | Lieutenant General Kashif Nazir |
The Military Operations and Intelligence Directorates function under the Chief of General Staff (CGS). A major reorganization 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. [1]
The headquarters function also includes the Judge Advocate General (JAG), and the Controller of Civilian Personnel, the Chief of the Corps of Engineers (E-in-C) who is also head of Military Engineering Service (MES), all of them also report to the Chief of the Army Staff.
Order | Organization | Typical Commander | (NATO) OFC-Star | |
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1. | Chief of Army | This post is held by the senior most and an experienced army officer, although the Chief of Army doesn't directly command but it has significant importance, the role of Chief of Army is to ensure the command of the whole of national army that includes:
| Field Marshal - | or |
2. | Corps | A corps usually comprises two or more divisions. | Lieutenant General | |
3. | Division | A division usually comprises three brigades including infantry, artillery, and engineers. Each division also has one or more armoured brigades, except mountain divisions. There are nineteen Infantry divisions, one Special Security Division, two mechanised divisions, two armoured divisions, one division-sized formation called Force Command Northern Areas, one engineer division, three artillery divisions (two are believed to possess ballistic missiles). | Major General | |
4. | Brigade | A brigade usually comprises three or more battalions of different types and is commanded by a brigadier. Some brigades are independent of divisions and report either to Corps HQ or Army HQ (e.g. 111 Bde). The independent brigades include seven mechanised infantry brigades, eight armoured brigades, four artillery brigades, and nine engineer brigades:
| Brigadier (general) | |
5. | Regiment | The only active operations regiments (as opposed to administrative regiments) are training regiments. Colonels don't exercise command appointments except training commands, staff appointments, brigade executive officers and a few administrative establishment commands. | Colonel | No Star |
6. | Battalion | A battalion has about 600–900 soldiers and is commanded by a lieutenant colonel. This number varies depending on the type of subunits of the battalion. A battalion comprises either three batteries (artillery or air defence) or four companies (infantry) or three squadrons (armoured). | Lieutenant Colonel | |
7. | Company | Headed by the major/captain, a company comprises about 120–150 soldiers. | Major - | |
8. | Platoon | An intermediate between a company and section, a platoon is headed by a lieutenant or, depending on the availability of commissioned officers, a junior commissioned officer, with the rank of subedar major. It has a total strength of about 30–36 troops. | Subedar major | |
9. | Section | Smallest military outfit, with a strength of about 9–13 personnel. Commanded by a non-commissioned officer of the rank of subedar, depending upon the working conditions of the section. | Subedar - Naib Subedar |
There are nine corps (each including an independent signals brigade) and three corps-level formations (Air Defence Aviation and Strategic Forces).
Logo/War flag | Corps | HQ Location | Current Commander | Major Corps Formations |
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I Corps [lower-alpha 1] | Mangla, Azad Kashmir | Lieutenant General Ayman Bilal Safdar |
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II Corps [lower-alpha 2] | Multan, Punjab | Lieutenant General Akhtar Nawaz Satti | ||
IV Corps [lower-alpha 3] | Lahore, Punjab | Lieutenant General Syed Aamer Raza |
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V Corps [lower-alpha 4] | Karachi, Sindh | Lieutenant General Babar Iftikhar | ||
X Corps [lower-alpha 5] | Rawalpindi, Punjab | Lieutenant General Shahid Imtiaz |
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XI Corps [lower-alpha 6] | Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa | Lieutenant General Sardar Hassan Azhar Hayat |
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XII Corps [lower-alpha 7] | Quetta, Balochistan | Lieutenant General Rahat Naseem Ahmed Khan | ||
XXX Corps [lower-alpha 8] | Gujranwala, Punjab | Lieutenant General Syed Imdad Hussain Shah |
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XXXI Corps [lower-alpha 9] | Bahawalpur, Punjab | Lieutenant General Saqib Mehmood Malik |
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Air Defence [lower-alpha 10] | Rawalpindi, Punjab | Lieutenant General Muhammad Zafar Iqbal | ||
Strategic Forces | Rawalpindi, Punjab | Lieutenant General Shehbaz Khan |
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Aviation [lower-alpha 11] | Rawalpindi, Punjab | Major General Nadeem Yousaf |
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In Pakistani military terminology, the regional commands are the temporary military formations that are structure based upon the conventional corps, and troop rotations are constant and varies based on the Pakistani war strategists' calculations.: 309 [2] The regional commands are led by the three-star rank general officer whose staff includes numbers of general officers.: 309 [2]
In past, the Eastern Command was organized at a corps-level conventional formation in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), consisting of the 9th Infantry Division, 14th Infantry Division, and 16th Infantry Division. These divisions are still active duty with their respected Regiments. To further support the Eastern Command, the 36th Adhoc Division and 39th Adhoc Division were commissioned to support the paramilitary units and police; and subsequently decommissioned after Eastern Command was de-activated.
To address the challenges and issues faced by the Cold Start strategy of Indian Army, the army formed regional commands to protect the North—South regions by establishing the first the Southern Command in 1999 and later the Northern Command in 2008.: 310 Other active regional formations includes the Army Strategic Forces Command and the Army Air Defence Command that serves as a platform of missile defense.: 311
Regional formational commands
The Pakistan Army is organised in two main ways, which are Arms and Services.
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Regiment
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The 1st Armoured Division is an armoured division of the Indian Army, headquartered at Patiala, Punjab. It is part of II Corps of the Indian Army's Western Command.
The Poona Horse is an armoured regiment in the Armoured Corps of the Indian Army. The regiment, known before independence as The Poona Horse, was raised as a regular cavalry regiment in the Bombay Presidency army of the East India Company. It was formed from the 3rd Regiment of Bombay Light Cavalry, raised in 1820, and the Poona Auxiliary Horse, raised about 1817–18. The latter unit was absorbed into the regular forces about 1860 and the two regiments later became the 33rd Queen Victoria's Own Light Cavalry and the 34th Prince Albert Victor's Own Poona Horse.
The 10th Indian Infantry Division was a war formed infantry division of the Indian Army during World War II. In four years, the division travelled over 4,000 miles (6,400 km) from Tehran to Trieste, fought three small wars, and fought two great campaigns: the Anglo-Iraqi War, the Invasion of Syria–Lebanon, the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran, the North African Campaign, and the Italian Campaign.
4th Horse (Hodson's Horse) is a part of the Armoured Corps of the Indian Army, which had its beginnings as an irregular cavalry regiment during the time of the Indian Rebellion of 1857.
The 1st Horse (Skinner's Horse) is a regiment of the Armoured Corps of the Indian Army. It traces its origins as a cavalry regiment from the times of the East India Company, followed by its service in the British Indian Army and finally, after independence as the fourth oldest and one of the senior cavalry regiments of the Armoured Corps of the Indian Army.
The 2nd Lancers (Gardner's Horse) is one of the oldest and a highly decorated armoured regiment of the Indian Army. The regiment was formed by the amalgamation of two of the oldest regiments of the Bengal Army – the 2nd Royal Lancers (Gardner's Horse) and the 4th Cavalry.
The 6th King Edward's Own Cavalry was a cavalry regiment in the Bengal Army (1842–1895) and the British Indian Army (1895–1921) until it was amalgamated with the 7th Hariana Lancers to form the 18th King Edward's Own Cavalry.
The Bengal Army was the army of the Bengal Presidency, one of the three presidencies of British India within the British Empire.
The 3rd Cavalry Regiment is a cavalry regiment of the Indian Army formed from the 5th and 8th Cavalry regiments in 1922.
The Deccan Horse or 9 Horse is one of the oldest and most decorated armoured regiments of the Indian Army. The Royal Deccan Horse , which was a regular cavalry regiment of the British Indian Army was formed from the amalgamation of two regiments after World War I. They saw service from the Mutiny of 1857 up to and including World War II.
The 20th Lancers is an armoured regiment in the Armoured Corps of the Pakistan Army. It is considered to be the successor of the old 20th Lancers of the British Indian Army. As part of a reorganization of the British Indian Army, the original 20th Lancers was formed in 1922 by the amalgamation of the 14th Murray's Jat Lancers and the 15th Lancers.
The 18th Cavalry is a cavalry regiment of the armoured corps of the Indian Army. The regiment was created in 1921, as the 18th King Edward's Own Cavalry of the British Indian Army, through the amalgamation of the 7th Hariana Lancers and 6th King Edward's Own Cavalry.
The 1st (Risalpur) Cavalry Brigade was a cavalry brigade of the British Indian Army formed in 1906 as a result of the Kitchener Reforms. It remained in India during the First World War but took an active part in the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919.
The Pakistan Army Armoured Corps is a military administrative and combined arms service branch of the Pakistan Army.
The Punjab Irregular Force (PIF) was created in 1851 to protect the NW frontier of British India. It was termed "Irregular" because it was outside the control of the Regular British East India Company Presidency armies of the three Presidencies of Bengal, Bombay or Madras, but was under the control of the British chief magistrate of Punjab, known as the President of the Board of Administration from 1849, then as the Chief Commissioner from 1853. Its soldiers were not subject to parade ground drill and showed unconcern towards routine orders given to regiments of the line. They practiced swift tactical movements in small groups, showing special elan and flair. It comprised the various regiments raised earlier for the same purpose on the orders of General Charles James Napier and Col. Sir Henry Montgomery Lawrence between 1843 and 1849 of the former Frontier Brigade established in 1846 and Transfrontier Brigade established in 1849. In 1865, the PIF was redesignated Punjab Frontier Force and in 1903 became the Frontier Force. In 1922 it was split into 2 separate units: the 12th Frontier Force Regiment and the 13th Frontier Force Rifles. In 1947, both were ceded to the new state of Pakistan, which in 1957 amalgamated them, together with a 3rd unit, the Pathan Regiment which Pakistan had earlier created from elements of both, to form the Frontier Force Regiment. Within the latter regiment, the first 15 of its 52 battalions can trace their origins back to original British Army regiments, and the regiment still maintains the lineage of its predecessor British regiments. Members of the PIF traditionally referred to themselves with pride as "Piffers", a tradition very much maintained within the Pakistan Army.
The 24th Cavalry (Frontier Force) is a regiment of the Pakistan Army, raised on June 7, 1962. It was one of the armoured regiments assembled and trained following independence to meet Pakistan's growing defense needs. The officer selected to train and command the new unit was Lt Col Muhammad Afzal Khan. The 24th Cavalry was involved in the first ever tank assault in the history of the Pakistan army. It was proved to be the best cavalry unit against India.
The British cavalry were the first British Army units to see action during the First World War. Captain Hornby of the 4th Dragoon Guards is reputed to have been the first British soldier to kill a German soldier, using his sword, and Corporal Edward Thomas of the same regiment is reputed to have fired the first British shot shortly after 06:30 on 22 August 1914, near the Belgian village of Casteau. The following Battle of Mons was the first engagement fought by British soldiers in Western Europe since the Battle of Waterloo, ninety-nine years earlier. In the first year of the war in France, nine cavalry brigades were formed for three British cavalry divisions. Other regiments served in six brigades of the two British Indian Army cavalry divisions that were formed for service on the Western Front. Three regiments also fought in the campaign in Mesopotamia, the only other theatre of the First World War where British cavalry served.
20th Lancers is an armoured regiment in the Armoured Corps of the Indian Army. The regiment distinguished itself in operations with its defence of Chhamb in Jammu and Kashmir during the 1965 Indo-Pakistan War and won one Maha Vir Chakra. It has provided one Chief of Army Staff and two Army Commanders.
The 54th Infantry Division is an Infantry division of the Indian Army. The Division was raised as an Infantry Division, but was converted into a Reorganised Amphibious Formation (RAMFOR) in 2011. It is currently the only division of the Indian Army which carries out Amphibious warfare. The division is headquartered at Secunderabad in Telangana and is a part of XXI Corps. The Division is commanded by an Officer of the rank of Major General titled General Officer Commanding (GOC).