60 Facts About Pakistan Army

1.

Pakistan Army is the land service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces.

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2.

The roots of its modern existence trace back to the British Indian Army that ceased to exist following the Partition of British India, which occurred as a result of the 1947 Indian Independence Act of the United Kingdom.

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3.

Primary objective and constitutional mission of the Pakistan Army is to ensure the national security and national unity of Pakistan by defending it against any form of external aggression or the threat of war.

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4.

Troops from the Pakistan Army had a relatively strong presence as part of a larger UN and NATO coalition during the Bosnian War and larger Yugoslav Wars.

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5.

Pakistan Army, a major component of the Pakistani military alongside the Pakistan Navy and Pakistan Air Force, is a volunteer force that has seen extensive combat during three major wars with India, several border skirmishes with Afghanistan at the Durand Line as well as a long-running insurgency in the Balochistan region which it has been combatting alongside Iranian security forces since 1948.

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6.

Pakistan Army has a regimental system but is operationally and geographically divided into command zones, with its most basic fields being its various corps.

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7.

The Pakistan Army is commanded by the Chief of Army Staff, who is by statute a four-star ranking general and a senior member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee appointed by the prime minister and subsequently affirmed by the president.

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8.

The Constitution of Pakistan Army establishes the principal land warfare uniform branch in the Pakistan Army Armed Forces as its states:.

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9.

Pakistan Army came into its modern birth from the division of the British Indian Army that ceased to exist as a result of the partition of India that resulted in the creation of Pakistan on 14 August 1947.

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10.

Command and control at all levels of the new army was extremely difficult, as Pakistan had received six armoured, eight artillery and eight infantry regiments compared to the twelve armoured, forty artillery and twenty-one infantry regiments that went to India.

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11.

Although, it was Lieutenant-General Sir Frank Messervy who opposed the tribal invasion in a cabinet meeting with Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan in 1947, later leaving the command of the army in 1947, in a view of that British officers in the Indian and Pakistan Army would be fighting with each other in the war front.

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12.

Gracey eventually forced India and Pakistan Army to reach a compromise through the United Nations' intervention, with Pakistan Army controlling the Western Kashmir and India controlling the Eastern Kashmir.

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13.

In 1948, the British army officers in the Pakistan Army established and raised the 10th, 12th, and the 14th infantry divisions— with the 14th being established in East Bengal.

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14.

In 1950, the 15th Infantry Division was raised with the help from the United States Pakistan Army, followed by the establishment of the 15th Lancers in Sialkot.

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15.

Between 1950 and 1954, Pakistan Army raised six more armoured regiments under the US Army's guidance: including, 4th Cavalry, 12th Cavalry, 15th Lancers, and 20th Lancers.

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16.

Pakistan Army held the referendum and tightly control the political situation through the intelligence agencies, and banned the political activities in the country.

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17.

In contrast, the Indian Pakistan Army's armor had outdated in technology with Korean war-usage American M4 Sherman and World War II manufactured British Centurion Tank, fitted with the French-made CN-75 guns.

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18.

In spite of Pakistan enjoying the numerical advantage in tanks and artillery, as well as better equipment overall, the Indian Army successfully penetrated the defences of Pakistan's borderline and successfully conquered around 360 to 500 square kilometres of Pakistani Punjab territory on the outskirts of Lahore.

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19.

Pakistan Army remained involved in the nation's civic affairs, and ultimately imposed the second martial law in 1969 when the writ of the constitution was abrogated by then-army commander, Gen.

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20.

Abdul Hamid Khan as the Army Chief of Staff of the Pakistan Army, who centralized the chain of command in Rawalpindi in a headquarters known as "High Command".

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21.

The Pakistan Army reportedly helped the Pakistan Navy to toward establishing the amphibious branch, the Pakistan Marines, whose battalion was airlifted to East Pakistan along with the 9th Infantry Division.

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22.

Intervention in East Pakistan Army further grew when the Operation Searchlight resulted in the overtaking of the government buildings, communication centers, and restricting the politicians opposed to military rule.

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23.

The army, together with marines, launched ground offensives on both fronts but the Indian Army successfully held its ground and initiated well-coordinated ground operations on both fronts, initially capturing 15,010 square kilometres of Pakistan's territory; this land gained by India in Azad Kashmir, Punjab and Sindh sectors.

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24.

In January 1972, the Bhutto administration formed the POW Commission to investigate the numbers of war prisoners held by the Indian Army while requesting the Supreme Court of Pakistan to investigate the causes of the war failure with India in 1971.

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25.

In October 1999, the army engaged in another military takeover of the federal government from the Sharif administration when the Pakistan Army GHQ refused to accept the relief of commission of Gen.

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26.

Musharraf's leadership, the army's capabilities fighting the fanatic Talibans and Afghan Arab fighters in Pakistan further weakened and suffered serious setbacks in gaining control of the tribal belt that fell under the control of the Afghan Arabs and Uzbek fighters.

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27.

The Constitution allows the President of Pakistan Army, an elected civilian official, to act as the civilian Commander-in-Chief while the Prime Minister, an elected civilian, to act as the Chief Executive.

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28.

Single combat headquarter, the Army GHQ, is located in Rawalpindi Cantonment in Punjab in Pakistan, in the vicinity of the Joint Staff Headquarters.

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29.

Military administration under the army chief operating at the Pakistan Army GHQ including the appointed Principal Staff Officers:.

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30.

The Department of Pakistan Army offers employment to civilians in financial management, accountancy, engineering, construction, and administration, and has currently employed 6,500 civilians.

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31.

Estimations by the International Institute for Strategic Studies the Pakistan Army's combined strength of the standing army is ~815,000 including the active duty personnels from the Regular Army, Army Reserve, Army National Guard, and is additionally supported by the ~70,000 personnel from the Frontier Corps–the military provost under the command of the Pakistan Army as of 2018.

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32.

Pakistan Army uniquely uses the junior commissioned officer ranks, equivalent of the Warrant officers or the Limited duty officers in the United States military, inherited from the former British Indian Army introduced by the British Army in India between the enlisted and officer ranks.

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33.

From 1947 to 1971, the Pakistan Army was predominantly favored to recruit from Punjab and was popular in the country as the "Punjabi Army" because of heavy recruiting interests coming from the rural and poor families of villages in Punjab as well as being the most populous province of Pakistan.

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34.

Department of Pakistan Army has relaxed its recruitment and medical standards in Sindh and Balochistan where the height requirement of 5 feet 4 inches is considered acceptable even with the enlists educational level at eighth grade is acceptable for the waiver; since the army recruiters take responsibility of providing education to 12th grade to the interested enlists from Balochistan and Sindh.

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35.

In July 2013, the Pakistan Army trained female paratrooper officers for the first time.

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36.

Army recruits from all religions in Pakistan including Hindus, Sikhs, Zoroastrians, Christians who have held command-level positions.

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37.

Between 1947 and 2000, a policy of restricting Hindus prior enlisting in the Pakistan Army was in practice until the policy was reversed by the federal government.

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38.

Equipment and weapon system of Pakistan Army is developed and manufactured by the local weapons industry and modern arms have been imported from China, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, France and other countries in the European Union.

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39.

The Chinese cooperation and further assistance with the Pakistan Army is vital in designing, vehicular construction, and material manufacturing of the main battle tanks.

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40.

From 1947 to 1971, the army service uniform of the Pakistan Army closely resembled to the army uniform of the British Army, but the uniform changed in preference of Sherwani.

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41.

In winter front such as in the Siachen and near the Wakhan Corridor, the Pakistan Army personnel wears the heavy winter all white military gear.

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42.

The Pakistan Army has introduced arid camouflage patterns in uniform and resized qualification badges which are now service ribbons and no longer worn along with the ranks are now embroidered and are on the chest.

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43.

Flag of Pakistan Army is placed over the black embroidered formation sign on the left arm and class course insignias are put up for the Goldish uniform, decorations and awards and the ranks.

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44.

Reorganization of the position standing army in 2008, the Pakistan Army now operates six tactical commands, each commanded by the GOC-in-C, with a holding three-star rank: Lieutenant-General.

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45.

In events involving the large and massive foreign invasion by the Indian Army charging towards the Pakistan-side Punjab sector, the Pakistan Army maintains the "Pakistan Army Reserves" as a strategic reserve component for conducting the offense and defense measures against the advancing enemy.

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46.

Since its establishment in 1947, the Pakistan Army has traditionally followed the British regimental system and culture, and currently there are six organized infantry regiments.

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47.

Pakistan Army has a military division dedicated towards conducting the unconventional and asymmetric warfare operations, established with the guidance provided by the United States Army in 1956.

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48.

Each battalion in the Pakistan Army Special Forces is specifically trained for a specific type of operation, and each battalion is a specialist in their nature of conducting the operation.

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49.

In 2000, the Pakistan Army established the Army Strategic Forces Command that is charged with overseeing the operational readiness and various deployment of the Army SSG, Special Forces, Special Support Group, Army Rangers, and the Strategic Plans Division Force— the CBRN defense component of the department of army.

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50.

Besides the Army SSG and the Special Forces, the Pakistan Army has trained a specific Rangers team that is especially trained in counter tactics, and is trained for carrying out the difficult counter-terrorism operation involving the civilian hostages in Karachi, and helping the state governments in Sindh and Punjab maintaining the law and order situation intact.

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51.

The Pakistan Army Reserves, supported by the Army National Guard, and India's Territorial Army would eventually forward towards the defensive positions and fortifications in less than 24 hours.

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52.

Pakistan Army offers wide range of extensive and lucrative careers in the military to young high school graduates and the college degree holders upon enlistment, and Pakistan Army operates the large number of training schools in all over the country.

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53.

The British officers in the Pakistan Army had to established the wide range of schools to provide education and to train the army personnel in order to raise the dedicated and professional army.

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54.

The Pakistan Army takes responsibility of providing the military training and education to Pakistan Marines at their School of Infantry and Tactics, and military officers in other branches have attended and qualified psc from the Command and Staff College in Quetta.

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55.

Besides their infrastructure projects in Pakistan, the Pakistan Army has built several infrastructures projects in other parts of the world as part their deployment in United Nation's peacekeeping missions.

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56.

Pakistan Army has played an integral part in the civil society of Pakistan, almost since its inception.

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57.

Besides relief activities in the country, the Pakistan Army has engaged in other parts of the world such as coordinating and leading the relief efforts in Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka after these countries were affected by the underwater earthquake that resulted in tsunami in 2004.

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58.

Pakistan Army has been conferred with the foreign awards for its services provided to the foreign nations, including the honoring of two army pilots from the Aviation Corps who conducted a difficult operation in extracting the Slovenian mountaineer, Tomaz Humar, who got stranded on the western end of the 8,125-metre-high Nanga Parbat and the Slovenian President presented Lt-Col.

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59.

In 2010, the Pakistan Army was awarded with a gold medal at the Exercise Cambrian Patrol held in Wales in the United Kingdom.

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60.

Pakistan Army offers programs in many sports including boxing, field hockey, cricket, swimming, table tennis, karate, basketball, soccer, and other sports.

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