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 ...
Nigar Johar Khan ( ur, ) is a
three-star general Military star ranking is military terminology, used to describe general and flag officers. Within NATO's armed forces, the stars are equal to OF-6–10.
Star ranking
One–star
A one–star rank is usually the lowest ranking general or flag ...
in 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 ...
. Nigar is the first and only woman in the history of Pakistan Army to reach the rank of lieutenant-general, and the third to reach the rank of major-general. She belongs to the
Pakistan Army Medical Corps
The Pakistan Army Medical Corps, Urdu: ﺁرمى مڈيكل كور; ''Army Medical Corps'', abbreviated as the AMC and popularly known as Medical Corps, is a military administrative combatant staff corps, and a primary military medical comman ...
Shahida Malik
Major-General Shahida Malik (Urdu: شاهدہ ملک; HI(M), SI(M)), was a senior officer of the Pakistan Army who was the former Surgeon-General of the Pakistan Army Medical Corps.
She is the first lady officer in the Pakistan Army to have re ...
, Shehla Baqai, Abeera Chaudhry and Shazia Nisar also belong to the
Army Medical Corps
A medical corps is generally a military branch or officer corps responsible for medical care for serving military personnel. Such officers are typically military physicians.
List of medical corps
The following organizations are examples of medica ...
.
In 2015, she was featured in an Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) video honoring women in the Pakistan Armed Forces. At the time, she was the deputy commandant of the Combined Military Hospital (CMH), Rawalpindi. In the video, she says, "Pakistan is my country and I was born here. I was raised here and I think there is no match to Pakistan to anywhere in the world," while adding, "Think of all the Muslim countries, think of all those developing nations. This is the only country which has had female general officers. No one else," she added.
Swabi District
Swabi District ( ps, سوابۍ ولسوالۍ, ur, ) is a district in the Mardan Division of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. It lies between the Indus and Kabul Rivers. Before becoming a district in 1988, it was a tehsil within t ...
of
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ps, خېبر پښتونخوا; Urdu, Hindko: خیبر پختونخوا) commonly abbreviated as KP or KPK, is one of the Administrative units of Pakistan, four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, ...
province to a
Pashtun
Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically re ...
family. Her father, Qadir, was an army colonel. Both her parents along with her two younger sisters died in a car accident in 1989. Her husband, Johar, an engineer in the military, died in 2019 due to cancer.
Johar completed her schooling through the
Presentation Convent Girls High School
St. Ann's Presentation Convent High School, Rawalpindi, is a private Catholic missionary school located in Lalkurti area of Rawalpindi Cantonment, Pakistan. In spite of its name, the school caters for students seeking an elementary and high scho ...
, Rawalpindi in 1978. She joined the Army Medical College (AMC) in 1981, graduating in 1985. She is from the 5th MBBS course of the Army Medical College and has served as a female company commander of Ayesha Company at the same college. In 2010, she completed the examination for membership of the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan. In 2012, she completed her diploma in Advance Medical Administration through the Armed Forces Post Graduate Medical Institute and in 2015 received a Master of Public Health degree from the same institute.
Military career
On 30 June 2020 she was promoted to lieutenant general and appointed as Surgeon General of Pakistan Army. In 2015, she was the deputy commandant of the
Aik Hai Nigaar
''Aik Hai Nigar'' is a Pakistani television biographical film, biographical-drama film based on three-star general of Pakistan Army, Nigar Johar and centers on her life and career from 1975 (when Johar was young) to present time. The telefilm i ...
, a 2021 Urdu language biographical telefilm about her life. The telefilm was directed by Adnan Sarwar and was premiered on 23 October 2021 on
ARY Digital
''ARY Digital'' ( ur, ) is a Pakistani pay television network available in Pakistan, the Middle East, North America and Europe. The ARY Group of companies is a Dubai-based holding company founded by a Pakistani businessman, Abdul Razzak Yaqoob ...