Chief of Army Staff

(Pakistan)

The Chief of Army Staff (Urdu: ‫ﺳﺮﺑﺮاہ ﭘﺎک‬

‫( )ﻓﻮج‬reporting name: COAS), is a military
appointment and statutory office held by a
four-star general of the Pakistan Army,
who is appointed by the Prime Minister of
Pakistan and final confirmation by the
President of Pakistan.[2]
 Chief of the Army Staff
‫ﺳﺮﺑﺮاہ ﭘﺎک ﻓﻮج‬

Flag of the Chief of the Army Staff

Incumbent
General Qamar Javed Bajwa
since 29 November 2016

Ministry of Defence
 Army Secretariat-I at MoD[1]

Abbreviation COAS

Member of Joint Chiefs of Staff

Committee

Reports to Prime Minister

Minister of Defence

Seat General Headquarters

(GHQ)
Rawalpindi
Cantonment, Punjab

Nominator Prime Minister

Appointer President

Term length 3 years

Renewable once
Precursor Commander-in-Chief
of the Army

Formation March 3, 1972

First holder General Tikka Khan

Unofficial names Army Chief

Deputy Chief of General Staff

Vice-Chief of Army
Staff

Salary According to Pakistan

Military officer's Pay
Grade(apex Scale)

Website Official website

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:

Engineer-in-Chief (Eng-in-C)
Chief of General Staff
Chief of Logistics Staff
Inspector-General of Training and
Evaluation (IGT&E)
 Inspector-General Communications
and IT (IGC&IT)
Inspector-General Arms (IG Arms)
Military Secretary (Mil Secy)
Adjutant-General
Quartermaster General (QMG)
Master-General of Ordnance (MGO)
Judge Advocate General Corps
Director-General EME (DGEME)
Director-General Frontier Works
Organisation (DGFWO)
DG Combat Development
Directorate

Martial law and Turn Over

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]

List of Chiefs of Army Staff

 Time in Unit of
No. Chief of Army Staff Took office Left office
office Commission

General
Tikka Khan HJ, HQA, 3 March 1 March 3 years,
1 2 Fd Regt Arty
SPk 1972 1976 364 days
(1915–2002)

General
Muhammad Zia-ul- 1 March 17 August 12 years,
2 13 Lancers
Haq 1976 1988 169 days
(1924–1988)

General
Mirza Aslam Beg 17 August 16 August 2 years,
3 16 Baloch
NI(M), SBt 1988 1991 364 days
(born 1931)

General
16 August 8 January 1 year,
4 Asif Nawaz NI(M), SBt 5 Punjab
1991 1993 † 145 days
(1937–1993)

General
Abdul Waheed Kakar 11 January 12 January 3 years,
5 5 FF
NI(M), SBt 1993 1996 1 day
(born 1937)

General
Jehangir Karamat 12 January 6 October 2 years,
6 13 Lancers
NI(M), TBt 1996 1998 267 days
(born 1941)

General
28
Pervez Musharraf 6 October 9 years, 16 (SP) Medium
7 November
NI(M), TBt 1998 53 days Regt Arty
2007
(born 1943)

General
29 29
Ashfaq Parvez 6 years,
8 November November 5 Baloch
Kayani NI(M), HI(C) 0 days
2007 2013
(born 1952)

9 General 29 29 3 years, 6 FF
 Raheel Sharif NI(M), November November 0 days
HI(M) 2013 2016
(born 1956)

General
29
Qamar Javed Bajwa 3 years,
10 November Incumbent 16 Baloch
NI(M), HI(M) 209 days
2016
(born 1960)

Vice Chief of Army Staff

The Vice Chief of Army Staff (VCOAS), is
the post that is principal deputy and
second-in-command (S-in-C) of the
Pakistan Army, reporting under the Chief
of Army Staff. The position was created in
the existence of army chief is
simultaneously the President of Pakistan,
having taking over by imposing the martial
law against the elected civilian
government.:contents[22] The post is now
nonexistence and no longer in
commission with the army— the Chief of
General Staff now serves as the second-in-
command in the army leadership.[23]

The function and scope of the vice army

chief was to "exercise and perform all the
powers and functions vested in the chief
of army staff under the law. rules,
regulations, orders, and instructions for
the time being in the force.":contents[22]

The vice army chiefs are considered to be

the principle commander of the army but
not altogether, as the vice army chief has
to report to the army chief, specifically in
taking decisions regarding the
promotions.:contents[22] The post of the vice
army chief is a very senior position and the
appointment holder is a four-star general.

List of vice chiefs of army staff …

All persons mentioned below have served

as the Vice Chief of the Army Staff with
distinction of General Abdul Hamid Khan
who acted as the 'Chief of Staff' (COS) of
the army under General Yahya Khan who
was the President of Pakistan and also the
holder of the appointment 'C-in-C of the
Army'. General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani was
the last vice chief of army staff till date.
 Appointment Unit of
Order Name Rank Photo Left Office Decorations
Date Commission

20
Abdul 25 March
± General December 10th Baloch HQA, SPk
Hamid Khan 1969
1971

13 April 23 March 1st (SP) Med

1 Sawar Khan General NI(M)
1980 1984 Regt Arty (FF)

Khalid
22 March 29 March 11th Cavalry
2 Mahmud General NI(M), S Bt
1984 1987 (FF)
Arif

Mirza Aslam 29 March 17 August

3 General 16th Baloch NI(M), S Bt
Beg 1987 1988

8 October 6 October
4 Yusaf Khan General Guides Cavalry NI(M)
2001 2004

Ahsan
7 October 7 October
5 Saleem General 33rd Cavalry NI(M)
2004 2007
Hayat

Ashfaq 28
8 October
6 Parvez General November 5th Baloch NI(M), HI
2007
Kayani 2007

See also
Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff
Committee
Chief of Air Staff (Pakistan)
Chief of Naval Staff (Pakistan)
 Chief of General Staff (Pakistan)

References
1. MoD, Ministry of Defence.
"Organogram of MoD" (PDF).
mod.gov.pk/. Ministry of Defence
Press. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
2. "Lt Gen Raheel appointed as new
COAS, Lt Gen Rashad as CJCSC" . The
News. 27 November 2013. Archived
from the original on 1 December
2013. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
3. Shabbir, Usman (2003). "Command
and Structure control of the Pakistan
Army" . pakdef.org. PakDef Military
Consortium. Retrieved 24 July 2017.
4. Inc, IBP (2009). Pakistan Intelligence,
Security Activities and Operations
Handbook - Strategic Information and
Developments . Lulu.com. p. 230.
ISBN 9781438737225. Retrieved
24 July 2017.
5. "New Pakistan army chief takes
command" . news.yahoo.com.
Retrieved 16 December 2013.
 . "Will retire on November 29, Kayani
confirms" . The Express Tribune. 6
October 2013. Retrieved 16 December
2013.
7. "General Bajwa takes charge as
Pakistan's 16th army chief" . DAWN.
29 November 2016. Retrieved
29 November 2016.
. "Gen Bajwa assumes command as
Pakistan's 16th army chief" . The
Express Tribune. 29 November 2016.
Retrieved 29 November 2016.
9. "Pakistan: Army and Paramilitary
Forces" . www.factba.se. Retrieved
16 December 2013.
10. "The Army Chief's" .
www.pakistanarmy.gov.pk. Retrieved
19 October 2019.
11. Zahra-Malik, Drazen Jorgic and
Mehreen (26 November 2016).
"Pakistan PM Sharif names General
Bajwa as new army chief" . Reuters
UK. Retrieved 26 November 2016.
12. 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.
13. Tudor, Maya (2013). The Promise of
Power: The Origins of Democracy in
India and Autocracy in Pakistan .
Cambridge University Press.
ISBN 9781107032965.
14. Bhutto, Zulfikar Ali. "If I was
assassinated" (PDF).
15. Burki, Shahid Javed (19 March 2015).
Historical Dictionary of Pakistan .
Rowman & Littlefield.
ISBN 9781442241480.
1 . Crossette, Barbara (13 October 1999).
"COUP IN PAKISTAN -- MAN IN THE
NEWS; A Soldier's Soldier, Not a
Political General -- Pervez Musharraf" .
The New York Times. ISSN 0362-
4331 . Retrieved 21 November 2017.
17. Chitkara, M. G. (2003). Combating
Terrorism . APH Publishing.
ISBN 9788176484152. Retrieved
24 November 2017.
1 . Hashwani, Sadruddin (2014). The
Truth Always Prevails: A Memoir .
Penguin UK. ISBN 9789351188322.
19. InpaperMagazine, From (8 October
2011). "Flashback: The Martial Law of
1958" . DAWN.COM. Retrieved
24 November 2017.
20. Gupta, J. B. Das (2002). Islamic
Fundamentalism And India. Maulana
Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian
Studies, Kolkata.
ISBN 9788178710136.
21. Haqqani, Husain (2010). Pakistan:
Between Mosque and Military .
Carnegie Endowment.
ISBN 9780870032851. Retrieved
24 November 2017.
22. Cloughley, Brian (2016). A History of
the Pakistan Army: Wars and
Insurrections . New York [u.s[:
Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.
ISBN 9781631440397. Retrieved
21 July 2017.
23. "General's first gambit" . The Indian
Express. 16 December 2016. Retrieved
14 August 2017.

External links
Official Pakistan Army website
Inter-Services Public Relations
PAF s' Chief of the Air Staffs
Retrieved from
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title=Chief_of_Army_Staff_(Pakistan)&oldid=96446
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