Officer ranks[edit]
Each year, about 320 men enter the Army bi-annually through the Pakistan Military Academy at Kakul in Abbottabad in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; a small number—like doctors and technical specialists—are directly recruited, and are part of the officer corps. The product of a highly competitive selection process, members of the officer corps have completed twelve years of education and spend two years at the Pakistan Military Academy, with their time divided about equally between military training and academic work to bring them up to a baccalaureate education level, which includes English-language skills.
Academic institutions[edit]
The Army has twelve other training and educational establishments, including schools concentrating on specific skills such as infantry, artillery, intelligence, engineering, or mountain warfare. The National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) has been established which has absorbed the existing colleges of engineering, signals, electrical engineering and medicine. At the apex of the army training system is the Command and Staff College at Quetta, one of the few institutions inherited from the colonial period. The college offers a ten-month course in tactics, staff duties, administration, and command functions through the division level. Students from foreign countries, including the United States, have attended the school but reportedly have been critical of its narrow focus and failure to encourage speculative thinking or to give adequate attention to less glamorous subjects, such as logistics.[citation needed]
The senior training institution for all service branches is the National Defence University, Islamabad. Originally established in 1971 at Rawalpindi, to provide training in higher military strategy for senior officers, the institution was relocated to Islamabad in 1995. According to Aqil Shah, the NDU is significant for understanding the institutional norms of military tutelage in Pakistan because it constitutes the “highest forum where the military leadership comes together for common instruction.” Without graduating from the NDU (or a foreign equivalent), no officer can become a general. Besides, the NDU training program represents a radical shift from the emphasis on operational and staff functions in the training of junior officers (for example, majors at the Staff College) to educating colonels and brigadiers about a broad range of strategic political, social, and economic factors as they affect national security. In that sense, it constitutes the senior officer corps’s baptism into a shared ideological framework about the military’s appropriate role, status, and behavior in relation to state and society. These shared values affect how these officers perceive and respond to civilian governmental decisions, policies, and political crises.[67] It also offers courses that allow civilians to explore the broader aspects of national security. In a program begun in the 1980s to upgrade the intellectual standards of the officer corps and increase awareness of the wider world, a small group of officers, has been detailed to academic training, achieving master's degrees and even doctorates at universities in Pakistan and abroad.
Pakistani officers were sent abroad during the 1950s and into the 1960s for training in Britain and other Commonwealth countries, and the United States, where trainees numbering well in the hundreds attended a full range of institutions ranging from armoured and infantry schools to the higher staff and command institutions. After 1961 this training was coordinated under the International Military Education and Training (IMET) program, but numbers varied along with the vicissitudes of the United States-Pakistan military relationship. Of some 200 officers being sent abroad annually in the 1980s, over two-thirds went to the United States, but the cessation of United States aid in 1990 entailed suspension of the IMET program. In 1994 virtually all foreign training was in Commonwealth countries. However, after the 9/11 attacks, Pakistan again begun sending officers to US Army schools. Today there are more than 400 officers serving in foreign countries. Officers retire between the ages of fifty-two and sixty, depending on their rank.
Science and technology[edit]
Apart from conducting military operations, exercises, and military ethics, the Pakistan Army maintains its own science and technology corps and organizations. Most notable science and engineering corps including Military Engineering Service (MES) Corps of Engineers, Corps of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (EME), and Frontier Works Organisation. Its Army Strategic Forces Command served as the primary military organization in the matters of conducting and directing research on nuclear and space (such as military satellites). The cadets and officers of the Pakistan Army who wished to study science and technology are given admission at the College of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (CEME) and the Military College of Engineering where the scientific and military education are taught. The admissions of engineering colleges are not restricted to civilians as they can also gain admission and graduate with engineering and science degrees.
Uniforms[edit]
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,[68] decorations & awards[69]and the ranks.[70]
Ethnic composition[edit]
Traditionally, the Army was a predominantly Punjabi force because of its dominant population (Punjab is the most populous province of Pakistan, with approximately 55% of the country's total population). From the early 20th century in British controlled regions of Pakistan, three districts: Jhelum, Rawalpindi, and Campbellpur (now Attock) dominated the recruitment flows.
Large extensive efforts have been made to bring all ethnicities on par, 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. By 2005, the Punjab representation in the Army was down to 43%, from 63% in 1991, with further drops projected.[64][71]
Women and non-Muslims[edit]
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 Pakistan Army. Most women are recruited in the 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 Elite Anti-Terrorist Police Force in 2007, several female graduates were nominated to be Sky Marshals for Pakistan-based airlines.[72] In addition recently eight of the 41 cadets from the Pakistan Military Academy at Kakul became the first women guards of honour.[73] Pakistan is the only country in the Islamic world to have female Major Generals in the Army.[74] Major General Shahida Malik an Army doctor was Pakistan's first female two-star general.[citation needed]
Between 1947 and 2000, Pakistani Hindus were barred from joining the Army. This was changed in 2000 and since then, Pakistani Hindus were admitted for the first time. Today, people of all faiths or no faith may join and serve. Non Muslims are allowed to sit in all examinations and can serve in any part of the Pakistan Army. They can also be promoted to any rank.[75]
There have been numerous Christians who have risen to the rank of Brigadier. In April 1993 the first Christian promoted to the rank of Major General was Julian Peter who commanded the 40th Strike Division in Okara Cantt. In 2009 Brigadier Noel Israel Khokhar was also promoted to the rank of Major General. Major General Noel Israel Kokhar commanded the 23rd Division in Jehlum Cantt.
Capt. Hercharn Singh, as the first Sikh, is Commissioned Officer in Pakistan Army. He was commissioned in Baloch Regiment. Currently, he is serving as an ADC to a Corps Commander.
Recipients of Nishan-e-Haider[edit]
The Nishan-e-Haider (Urdu: نشان حیدر) (Sign of the Lion) is the highest military award given by Pakistan, ranking above the Hilal-i-Jur'at (Crescent of Courage). Nishan-e-Haider recipients receive an honorary title as a sign of respect: Shaheed meaning martyr for deceased recipients. As of 19 September 2013, all Nishan-e-Haider awards have thus far been given to the people engaged in battles with India.
Similar to the American Medal of Honor or the British Victoria Cross, it has only been awarded to 10 Pakistan Army personnel since 1947:
| Name | Unit | Conflict | Date | Place of Death |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Captain Muhammad Sarwar | 2nd Battalion of the Punjab Regiment | War of 1947 | 27 July 1948 | Uri, India |
| Major Tufail Mohammad | 16th Battalion of the Punjab Regiment | 1958 Border clash with India | 7 August 1958 | Lakshmipur District |
| Major Aziz Bhatti | 17th Battalion of the Punjab Regiment | War of 1965 | 10 September 1965 | Lahore District |
| Rashid Minhas | Pilot Officer | War of 1971 | 20 August 1971 | Thatta Sindh Pakistan |
| Major Mohammad Akram | 4th Battalion of the Frontier Force Regiment | War of 1971 | 1971 | Hakimpur Upozila, Dinajpur District, East Pakistan |
| Major Shabbir Sharif | 6th Battalion of the Frontier Force Regiment | War of 1971 | 6 December 1971 | Salmanki Sector, Kasur |
| Lance Naik Muhammad Mahfuz | 15th Battalion of the Punjab Regiment | War of 1971 | 8 December 1971 | Wagah-Attari |
| Sawar Muhammad Hussain | 20th Lancers, Armoured Corps | War of 1971 | 10 December 1971 | Zafarwal-Shakargarh |
| Captain Karnal Sher Khan | 12th Battalion of the Northern Light Infantry | Kargil War | 5 July 1999 | Kargil, Indian Administered Kashmir |
| Havaldar Lalak Jan | 12th Battalion of the Northern Light Infantry | Kargil War | 7 July 1999 | Kargil, Indian Administered Kashmir |
Recipients of foreign awards[edit]
Two Pakistani pilots belonging to the army aviation branch of Pakistan Army who carried out a daring rescue of a mountaineer were given Slovenia's top award for bravery. Slovenian, Tomaz Humar got stranded on the western end of the 8,125m Nanga Parbat mountain where he remained for around a week on top of the world's ninth-highest peak. The helicopter pilots plucked the 38-year-old from an icy ledge 6,000m up the peak known as "killer mountain".
The Slovenian President presented Lt Col Rashid Ullah Beg and Lt Col Khalid Amir Rana with the Golden Order for Services in the country's capital, Ljubljana, for risking their lives during the rescue mission, a Pakistan Army statement said.[76]
Pakistan Army team was awarded a gold medal at the prestigious Cambrian Patrol Exercise held in Wales in 2010. According to ISPR, "Rawalpindi based X Corps team represented Pakistan Army in Exercise Cambrian Patrol – 2010, held from 11–13 October 2010 and by the Grace of Allah, the team showed an excellent performance by winning a Gold Medal in the event, which is a big honour not only for Army but for the Country as a whole."[77][78][79][80]
Equipment[edit]
Main article: Equipment 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.Domestic suppliers provides most of the hi-tech equipment to the Pakistan Army, whereas foreign hi-tech equipment are of either Chinese, European or American origin.
Sports[edit]
See also: Pakistan Army basketball team
The Pakistan Army has a noteworthy sports program with elite athletes in many sports disciplines.[81] An example of the program's success is its basketball program which regularly provides the Pakistan national basketball team with key players.[82]
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