The Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army (C-in-C of the Pakistan Army) was the professional head of the

Pakistan Army The Pakistan Army (, ) is the Army, land service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The roots of its modern existence trace back to the British Indian Army that ceased to exist following the partition of India, Partition of British India, wh ...

from 1947 to 1972. 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. Direct appointments to the command of the

came from the British Army Council until 1951, when the first native Pakistani commander-in-chief (General

Ayub Khan Ayub Khan is a compound masculine name; Ayub is the Arabic version of the name of the Biblical figure Job, while Khan or Khaan is taken from the title used first by the Mongol rulers and then, in particular, their Islamic and Persian-influenced s ...

) was nominated and appointed by the

Government of Pakistan The Government of Pakistan ( ur, , translit=hakúmat-e pákistán) abbreviated as GoP, is a federal government established by the Constitution of Pakistan as a constituted governing authority of the Administrative units of Pakistan, four provin ...

. The C-in-Cs were assisted by Chiefs of Staff, as prior to the birth of Pakistan, the GHQ, Pakistan was an army command's HQ of the

British Indian Army The British Indian Army, commonly referred to as the Indian Army, was the main military of the British Raj before its dissolution in 1947. It was responsible for the defence of the British Indian Empire, including the princely states, which co ...

(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. The last Chief of Staff was General Abdul Hamid Khan, who served till 1971. The C-in-C designation was changed to ' Chief of Army Staff' in 1972, General

Tikka Khan General Tikka Khan ( ur, ٹکا خان; 10 February 1915 – 28 March 2002) was a Pakistan Army general who was the first chief of army staff from 3 March 1972 until retiring on 1 March 1976. Along with Yahya Khan, he is considered a chief ar ...

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.

History

Prior to the

Creation of Pakistan The Pakistan Movement ( ur, , translit=Teḥrīk-e-Pākistān) was a List of historical separatist movements, political movement in the first half of the 20th century that aimed for the creation of Pakistan from the Muslims, Muslim-majority a ...

from the

Partition of India The Partition of British India in 1947 was the Partition (politics), change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: ...

on 14 August 1947, the senior generals of the

were appointments made by the

Army Council (1904) The Army Council was the supreme administering body of the British Army from its creation in 1904 until it was reconstituted as the Army Board in 1964. History The disastrous campaigns of the Crimean War led to the consolidation of all adminis ...

of the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

. The supreme military commander's appointment was known as Commander-in-Chief, India who directly reported to the

Governor-General of India The Governor-General of India (1773–1950, from 1858 to 1947 the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, commonly shortened to Viceroy of India) was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom and after Indian independence in 1 ...

who was also under the

British monarchy The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the constitutional form of government by which a hereditary sovereign reigns as the head of state of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies (the Bailiwi ...

Field Marshal Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, ordinarily senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army and as such few persons are appointed to it. It is considered as ...

Sir Claude Auchinleck Field Marshal Sir Claude John Eyre Auchinleck, (21 June 1884 – 23 March 1981), was a British Army commander during the Second World War. He was a career soldier who spent much of his military career in India, where he rose to become Commander ...

was the last Commander-in-Chief of the undivided

who became the supreme commander of India and Pakistan on 15 August 1947 serving till November 30 of that year.

Dominion of Pakistan Between 14 August 1947 and 23 March 1956, Pakistan was an independent federal dominion in the Commonwealth of Nations, created by the passing of the Indian Independence Act 1947 by the British parliament, which also created the Dominion of I ...

was born in 14 August in 1947 and it's army was known as 'Royal Pakistan Army'; on 15 August

's General

Frank Messervy General Sir Frank Walter Messervy, (9 December 1893 – 2 February 1974) was a British Indian Army officer in the First and Second World Wars. Following its independence, he was the first Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army (15 August 1947 ...

became the first C-in-C of the newly created Pakistan Army. General

was the first native Pakistani to hold the appointment in 17 January 1951. However, Ayub didn't hold the substantive rank of full general till 1957. In 1969, when General

Yahya Khan General Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan , (Urdu: ; 4 February 1917 – 10 August 1980); commonly known as Yahya Khan, was a Pakistani military general who served as the third President of Pakistan and Chief Martial Law Administrator following his pr ...

became

President of Pakistan The president of Pakistan ( ur, , translit=s̤adr-i Pākiṣṭān), officially the President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is the ceremonial head of state of Pakistan and the commander-in-chief of the Pakistan Armed Forces.Abdul Hamid Khan was promoted to full General and was appointed as the 'Chief of Staff of the Army'. On 20 March 1972, the commander-in-chief post was renamed as " Chief of Army Staff (COAS)" with

Lieutenant-General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

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. The term of the superannuation was then constrained to three years in office as opposed to four years and was made a permanent member of the

Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee The Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (JCSC), ( ur, ); is an administrative body of senior high-ranking uniformed military leaders of the unified Pakistan Armed Forces who advises the civilian Government of Pakistan, National Security Council, ...

Appointees

The following table chronicles the appointees to the office of the Commander-in-Chief since the

independence of Pakistan The Pakistan Movement ( ur, , translit=Teḥrīk-e-Pākistān) was a political movement in the first half of the 20th century that aimed for the creation of Pakistan from the Muslim-majority areas of British India. It was connected to the per ...

to 1972.

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

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 Headquarters (commonly referred to as HQ) denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the to ...

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 I Corps, 1st Corps, or First Corps may refer to: France * 1st Army Corps (France) * I Cavalry Corps (Grande Armée), a cavalry unit of the Imperial French Army during the Napoleonic Wars * I Corps (Grande Armée), a unit of the Imperial French A ...

, and Altaf Qadri, who was on deputation to

CENTO The Middle East Treaty Organization (METO), also known as the Baghdad Pact and subsequently known as the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO), was a military alliance of the Cold War. It was formed in 24 February 1955 by Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Tur ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

, and a handful of Maj. Gens.Shaukat Qadir
"1965: Operation Grand Slam"
''Daily Times'', 4 October 2003 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

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 Gul Hassan Khan ( ur, گل حسن خان) (1921; b. 1921—10 October 1999), was a Pakistan Army senior general who served as the 6th and the last Commander-in-Chief of Pakistan Army, serving under President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto from 20 Decembe ...

was the Chief of General Staff (CGS), and Lt Gen

Khwaja Wasiuddin Khwaja Wasiuddin (1920–1992) was an army general and diplomat. He started his career as a young officer in the British Indian Army and later became a senior general in Pakistan Army. He was the permanent representative of Bangladesh to the U ...

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 General Muhammad Shariff ( ur, ; 22 February 1921 – 6 August 1999) was a senior Pakistan Army general who was the first Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, serving in this post from 1976 until tendering his resignation in 1977 ov ...

was sent as the Permanent Representative to the CENTO HQ in Turkey. Army's Eastern Command was under Lt Gen A.A.K. Niazi,

was under Lt Gen Irshad Ahmad Khan, II Corps was under Lt Gen

, IV Corps was under Lt Gen Bahadur Sher. On the other hand, the governor of Punjab was Lt Gen

Attiqur Rahman Mohammed Attiqur Rahman (Punjabi, ur, ), MC (24 June 1918 – 1 June 1996) was a senior general in the Pakistan Army, a noted military historian, and a senior government official. He was the martial law administrator (MLA) of West Pakistan in ...

, 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

{{Pakistan Army template Commanders-in-Chief, Pakistan Army *C