Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army

This article is about the Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army. For Commanders-in-Chief of the other countries, see Commander-in-Chief of the Army.

For the present title of the head of the Pakistan Army, see Chief of the Army Staff (Pakistan).

Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army
پاک فوج کے کمانڈر انچیف
Flag of the Pakistan Army
Longest serving General Muhammad Musa 27 October 1958 – 17 September 1966
Ministry of Defence Army Secretariat-I at MoD[1]
Abbreviation	C-in-C
Residence	Rawalpindi Cantonment
Seat	General Headquarters Rawalpindi Cantonment in Punjab, Pakistan
Nominator	Governor General of Pakistan, Prime Minister or President of Pakistan
Appointer	Governor General of Pakistan, Prime Minister or President of Pakistan
Term length	Not fixed
Formation	15 August 1947 (1947-08-15)
First holder	Gen. Frank Messervy
Final holder	Lt. Gen. Gul Hassan Khan
Abolished	3 March 1972 (1972-03-03)
Succession	Chief of Army Staff
Unofficial names	Army chief
Deputy	Chief of Staff of the Pakistan Army

The Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army (abbreviation: C-in-C of the Pakistan Army) was the professional head of the Pakistan Army from 1947 to 1972.^[2] The C-in-C was directly responsible for commanding the army. It was an administrative position and the appointment holder had main operational command authority over the army.^[3]

Direct appointments to the command of the Pakistan Army came from the British Army Council until 1951, when the first native Pakistani commander-in-chief (General Ayub Khan) was nominated and appointed by the Government of Pakistan.^[4][5]

The C-in-C designation was changed to 'Chief of Army Staff' in 1972; General Tikka Khan was the first person to hold the new title. Six generals have served as C-in-C, the first two of them were native British and the post's name was derived from the post of Commander-in-Chief of the British Indian Army.^{[6][7][8][9][10]}

History

See also: Military history of Pakistan and Commander-in-Chief, India

Prior to the Creation of Pakistan from the Partition of India on 14 August 1947, the senior generals of the British Indian Army were appointments made by the Army Council (1904) of the British Army.^[11]

The supreme military commander's appointment was known as Commander-in-Chief, India who directly reported to the Governor-General of India who was also under the British monarchy.^[12] Field Marshal Sir Claude Auchinleck was the last Commander-in-Chief of the undivided British Indian Army who became the supreme commander of India and Pakistan on 15 August 1947 serving till November 30 of that year.^[12]

Dominion of Pakistan was born on 14 August 1947 and its army was known as 'Royal Pakistan Army'; on 15 August British Indian Army's General Frank Messervy became the first C-in-C of the newly created Pakistan Army. General Ayub Khan was the first native Pakistani to hold the appointment on 17 January 1951. However, Ayub didn't hold the substantive rank of full general till 1957.

In 1969, when General Yahya Khan became President of Pakistan, Lieutenant General Abdul Hamid Khan was promoted to full General and was appointed as the 'Chief of Staff of the Army'.^[8] On 20 March 1972, the commander-in-chief post was renamed as "Chief of Army Staff (COAS)" with Lieutenant-General Tikka Khan elevated to four star rank to be appointed as army's first chief of army staff; this renaming was done copying India's COAS appointment.^[13]

Appointees

The following table chronicles the appointees to the office of the Commander-in-Chief since the independence of Pakistan to 1972.

Commanders-in-Chief, Pakistan Army (1947–1972)

See also: Chief of the General Staff (Pakistan)

No.	Portrait	Commander-in-Chief	Took office	Left office	Time in office	Unit of Commission	Notes
1		Messervy, FrankGeneral Sir Frank Walter Messervy KCSI, KBE, CB, DSO & Bar (1893–1974)	15 August 1947	10 February 1948	179 days	9th Hodson's Horse	The first commander-in-chief of the army who was in the acting rank of full general.
2		Gracey, DouglasGeneral Sir Douglas David Gracey KCB, KCIE, CBE, MC & Bar (1894–1964)	11 February 1948	16 January 1951	2 years, 339 days	1st King George's Own Gurkha Rifles (The Malaun Regiment)	The last native British person to hold the C-in-C title, served as an acting full general like his predecessor.
3		Khan, AyubField Marshal Muhammad Ayub Khan NPk, HJ, HPk,MBE (1907–1974)	17 January 1951	27 October 1958	7 years, 284 days	5 Punjab Regiment	The first native Pakistani person to be the C-in-C and as a substantive full general to hold the appointment, also the first chief to become President of the country. He was a self promoted Field Marshal after becoming the President.[14]
4		Musa, MuhammadGeneral Muhammad Musa HPk, HJ, , HQA,MBE (1908–1991)	27 October 1958	17 September 1966	7 years, 325 days	6/13 Frontier Force Rifles (1FF)	C-in-C during the Indo-Pak war of 1965 and also the longest serving officer to hold the post.
5		Khan, YahyaGeneral Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan HPk, HJ, SPk (1917–1980)	18 September 1966	20 December 1971	5 years, 93 days	10 Baluch Regiment	Second chief to serve as President of the country from 1969 to 1971.
6		Khan, GulLieutenant General Gul Hassan Khan SQA, SPk (1921–1999)	20 December 1971	3 March 1972	74 days	5 Horse	Last C-in-C of the Pakistan Army, serving till 1972 in the rank of lieutenant general.

Responsibility

The responsibility of the C-in-C was to perform as the chief commander of the army, he was responsible to make army and war policies along with other senior generals. He had the main command authority over the army. It was also the responsibility of the general to preside over the formation commanders meeting and any other meeting in the General Headquarters.

Chief of Staff of the Army

Not to be confused with Chief of the Army Staff (Pakistan).

The C-in-Cs were assisted by Chiefs of Staff (COS), as prior to the birth of Pakistan, the GHQ Pakistan was an army command's HQ of the British Indian Army (the Northern Command, India) and there had been the appointment of the Chief of Staff under the command's commander, this trend continued in independent Pakistan's newly created army headquarters (GHQ).^[15] The last Chief of Staff was General Abdul Hamid Khan, who served till 1971. Another noted chief of staff was Lieutenant General Nasir Ali Khan in 1950s.^[15][16]

Senior commanders during the 1965 and 1971 Wars

During the 1965 Indo-Pakistani War, there were only two Lt. Gens in the Army; Bakhtiar Rana, the Commander I Corps, and Altaf Qadri, who was on deputation to CENTO, Turkey, and a handful of Maj. Gens.^[17]

During the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War, there were two full generals and the number of Lt Gens reached 13; four were posted at the GHQ/CMLA HQ, one at the CENTO HQ in Ankara, Turkey, four were corps commanders, four were governors under martial law. General Yahya Khan was the President of Pakistan, General Abdul Hamid Khan was the de facto Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Lt Gen S.G.M.M. Peerzada was the PSO CMLA HQ in Rawalpindi, Lt Gen Gul Hassan Khan was the Chief of General Staff (CGS), and Lt Gen Khwaja Wasiuddin was the Master-General of Ordnance (MGO).The GHQ posts of QMG and AG were under the rank of Major-Generals. Lt Gen Muhammad Shariff was sent as the Permanent Representative to the CENTO HQ in Turkey. Army's Eastern Command was under Lt Gen A.A.K. Niazi, I Corps was under Lt Gen Irshad Ahmad Khan, II Corps was under Lt Gen Tikka Khan, IV Corps was under Lt Gen Bahadur Sher. On the other hand, the governor of Punjab was Lt Gen Attiqur Rahman, the governor of Sindh was Lt Gen Rakhman Gul, the governor of NWFP was Lt Gen K.M. Azhar, and the governor of Balochistan was Lt Gen Riaz Hussain.

References

1. MoD, Ministry of Defence. "Organogram of MoD" (PDF). Ministry of Defence (Pakistan). Ministry of Defence Press. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 July 2017. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
2. Bajwa, Kuldip Singh (2003). "Kashmir Valley saved". Jammu and Kashmir War, 1947-1948: Political and Military Perspective (googlebooks) (1st ed.). New Delhi, India: Har-Anand Publications. p. 320. ISBN 9788124109236. Retrieved 3 December 2017.
3. Siddiqi, Abdurrahman (2020). General Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan: The Rise & Fall of a Soldier, 1947-1971. Karachi, Pakistan: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780190701413.
4. Khan, Mohammad Ayub (1967). Friends Not Masters: A Political Autobiography. Karachi, Pakistan: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9789697553006.
5. Harmon, Daniel E. (2008). Pervez Musharraf: President of Pakistan: Easyread Super Large 20pt Edition. ReadHowYouWant.com. ISBN 9781427092038. Retrieved 3 December 2017.
6. Cheema, Pervaiz Iqbal (2002). "Defence Administration". The Armed Forces of Pakistan (google books) (1st ed.). New York, U.S.: NYU Press. p. 225. ISBN 9780814716335. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
7. Shabbir, Usman (2003). "Command and Structure control of the Pakistan Army". pakdef.org. PakDef Military Consortium. Archived from the original on 7 January 2019. Retrieved 24 July 2017.
8. Cloughley, Brian (2016). A History of the Pakistan Army: Wars and Insurrections. Skyhorse Publishing, Inc. ISBN 9781631440397. Retrieved 24 July 2017.
9. "Pakistan: Army and Paramilitary Forces". Factba.se. Archived from the original on 7 January 2019. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
10. "The Army Chief's". www.pakistanarmy.gov.pk. Archived from the original on 4 December 2013. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
11. Lenze Jr (2016). Civil–Military Relations in the Islamic World. Lexington Books. ISBN 9781498518741. Retrieved 21 July 2017.
12. Bajwa, Kuldip Singh (2003). "Kashmir Valley Saved" (google books). Jammu and Kashmir war, 1947-1948 : political and military perspective (1st ed.). New Delhi: Har-Anand Publications. p. 350. ISBN 9788124109236. Retrieved 24 July 2017.
13. Singh, Ravi Shekhar Narain Singh (2008). "Military and Politics" (googlebooks). The Military Factor in Pakistan (1st ed.). London, UK: Lancer Publishers. p. 550. ISBN 9780981537894. Retrieved 24 July 2017.
14. "Gen. Ayub becomes President". Dawn. 6 September 2017. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
15. Khan, Gul Hassan (1993). Memoirs of Lt. Gen. Gul Hassan Khan. United States: Oxford University Press, Karachi. ISBN 9780195774474.
16. "Lt Gen Nasir Ali Khan COS Pakistan Army inspecting the Guard of Honour at the Reunion Day Parade of 19th Lancers at West Ridge Rawalpindi 1955. Behind him are Brig Sarfaraz Khan commander 3rd Armoured Brigade and Lt Col Gussy Hyder CO 19th Lancers". flickr.com. 17 April 2013.
17. Shaukat Qadir. "1965: Operation Grand Slam" Daily Times, 4 October 2003