1947- 2019: A List of Army Chiefs

1947- 2019: A List of Army Chiefs



The Chief of Army Staff (Urdu: سربراہ پاک فوج‎) (reporting name: COAS), is a military appointment and statutory office held by a full general of Pakistan Army, who is appointed by the Prime Minister of Pakistan and final confirmation by the President of Pakistan.[2]
The Chief of Army Staff is the senior most appointment in the Pakistani military who is a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee in a separate capacity, usually consulting with the Chairman joint chiefs to act as a military adviser to the Prime Minister and its civilian government in the line of defending the land borders of the country.[3] The Chief of Army Staff exercise its responsibility of command and control of the operational, combatant, logistics, and training commands within the army, in contrast to the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army.[3] Due to its stature, the Chief of Army Staff have been instrumental in enforcing martial laws against the civilian government due to the meltdown of a civil-military relations in the past decades.:168[4][5]
The appointment, in principle, is constitutionally subjected to be for three years but extension may be granted from the approval and recommendations of the Prime Minister by the President.[6] The Chief of Army Staff is based in the Army GHQ, and the current Chief of Army Staff is General Qamar Javed Bajwa, serving in this capacity since 29 November 2016[7][8][9]
Office of the Chief of the Army Staff
The designation of the Chief of the Army Staff was created from the previous title Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army in 1972. Since 1972, there has been 10 four-star rank army generals to be appointed as chief of army staff by statute.[10] The Prime Minister approved the nomination and appointment of the Chief of Army Staff, with President confirming the Prime Minister's appointed choosing and nomination.[11]
The army leadership is based in the Army GHQ whose functions are supervised by the Chief of Army Staff, assisted by the civilians from the Army Secretariat of the Ministry of Defence (MoD).[1] The Chief of Army Staff exercise its responsibility of complete operational, training and logistics commands.:131[4]
There are several principle staff officers (PSO) that assists in running the operations of the Army GHQ:
Martial law and Turn Over
Main articles: Martial law in Pakistan and Turnover (employment)
The chief of army staff has been instrumental in instigating and enforcing the coups d'état against the civilian government and the Prime Minister.:40[12][13] In 1977, General Zia-ul-Haq was the first army chief who carefully planned a coup against Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto when the right wing opposition instigated popular demonstration after the general elections held in 1977. [14]
After the Pakistan Army's performance in Kargil sector, Prime Minister Sharif terminated the commission of General Musharraf, as an army chief and chairman joint chiefs, but Musharraf refused to follow the orders by instigating and leading the military coup by turning over the government under his control on 12 October 1999.[15][16]
The army chiefs, including the previous army's commanders-in-chiefs, had justified their course of actions by noting to attempt to control the worsening of the law and order situation in the country, as in the case of Yahya Khan (1969):239[17] and General Zia-ul-Haq:239[17] (1977), or by attempting to revive the economic prosperity in a threat of financial crises, as seen in the case of General Ayub Khan (1958):contents[18][19] and General Pervez Musharraf (1999).:154[20]:254[21] #fastitlinks.com
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