Structure of the Pakistan Army#Operational structure
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The structure of the Pakistan Army is based on two distinct themes: operational and administrative. Operationally the Pakistan Army is divided into nine corps and three corps-level formations with areas of responsibility (AOR) ranging from the mountainous regions of the north to the desert and coastal regions of the south. Administratively it is divided in several regiments (details below). The General Headquarters (GHQ) of the Army is located in Rawalpindi in Punjab province. It is planned to be moved to the capital city of Islamabad nearby.
Army headquarters and staff
{{see also|List of serving Generals of the Pakistan Army}}
File:Adm. Mike Mullen and Rear Adm. Scott Van Buskirk speak with Gen. Ashfaq Kayani and Maj. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha.jpg and Rear Adm. Scott Van Buskirk, commander of Carrier Strike Group 9, speak with Chief of Army Staff Gen. Ashfaq Kayani and Maj. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha, director general of military operations, on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) while under way in the northern part of the Arabian Sea on Aug. 27, 2008.]]
The Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), formerly called the Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C of the Pakistan Army), is challenged with the responsibility of commanding the Pakistan Army. The COAS operates from army headquarters in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad. The Principal Staff Officers (PSO's) assisting him in his duties at the lieutenant general level include:
| class="wikitable"
!Post !Name |
| Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) |
| Vice Chief of the Army Staff (VCOAS)
|Vacant |
| Deputy Chief of the Army Staff (DCOAS)
|Vacant |
| Chief of the General Staff (CGS)
Syed Aamer Raza |
| Chief of Logistics Staff (CLS)
|Lieutenant General Inayat Hussain |
| Inspector General Arms (IG Arms)
|Lieutenant General Sarfraz Ahmed |
| Adjutant General (AG)
|Lieutenant General Azhar Waqas |
| Quarter Master General (QMG)
|Lieutenant General Hassan Khattak |
| Military Secretary (MS)
|Lieutenant General Amer Ahsan Nawaz |
| Master-General of Ordnance (MGO)
|TBA |
| Inspector General Training & Evaluation (IG T&E)
|Lieutenant General Aamer Najam |
| Inspector General Communications and Information Technology (IG C&IT)
|Lieutenant General Muhammad Aqeel |
| Engineer-in-Chief (E-in-C)
|Lieutenant General Kashif Nazir |
The Military Operations and Intelligence Directorates function under the Chief of General Staff (CGS). A major reorganization in GHQ was done in September 2008 under General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, when two new PSO positions were introduced: the Inspector General Arms and the Inspector General Communications and IT, thus raising the number of PSO's to eight.Iftikhar A. Khan. [http://www.dawn.com/2008/09/30/top1.htm "Kayani shakes up army command"] Dawn, 30 September 2008
The headquarters function also includes the Judge Advocate General (JAG), and the Controller of Civilian Personnel, the Chief of the Corps of Engineers (E-in-C) who is also head of Military Engineering Service (MES), all of them also report to the Chief of the Army Staff.
Operational structure
=Hierarchy=
| class="wikitable" |
| Order
! colspan="2" |Organization !Typical Commander !(NATO) OFC-Star |
|---|
| 1.
|This post is held by the senior most and an experienced army officer, although the Chief of Army doesn't directly command but it has significant importance, the role of Chief of Army is to ensure the command of the whole of national army that includes:
|style="background:#EEEE88|General |
| 2.
|A corps usually comprises two or more divisions. |style="background:#EEEE88|Lieutenant General |
| 3.
|A division usually comprises three brigades including infantry, artillery, and engineers. Each division also has one or more armoured brigades, except mountain divisions. There are nineteen Infantry divisions, one Special Security Division, two mechanised divisions, two armoured divisions, one division-sized formation called Force Command Northern Areas, one engineer division, three artillery divisions (two are believed to possess ballistic missiles). |style="background:#EEEE88|Major General |
| 4.
| A brigade usually comprises three or more battalions of different types and is commanded by a brigadier. Some brigades are independent of divisions and report either to Corps HQ or Army HQ (e.g. 111 Bde). The independent brigades include seven mechanised infantry brigades, eight armoured brigades, four artillery brigades, and nine engineer brigades: :* 105 Independent Infantry Brigade under V Corps :* 105 Air Defence Independent Brigade Group in XXXI Corps :* 111 Independent Infantry Brigade at Rawalpindi with X Corps :* 212 Infantry Brigade at Lahore with IV Corps. |style="background:#EEEE88|Brigadier |
| 5.
|The only active operations regiments (as opposed to administrative regiments) are training regiments. Colonels don't exercise command appointments except training commands, staff appointments, brigade executive officers and a few administrative establishment commands. | rowspan="5" |No Star |
| 6.
|A battalion has about 600–900 soldiers and is commanded by a lieutenant colonel. This number varies depending on the type of subunits of the battalion. A battalion comprises either three batteries (artillery or air defence) or four companies (infantry) or three squadrons (armoured). |
| 7.
|Headed by the major/captain, a company comprises about 120–150 soldiers. |Major - |
| 8.
|An intermediate between a company and section, a platoon is headed by a lieutenant or, depending on the availability of commissioned officers, a junior commissioned officer, with the rank of subedar major. It has a total strength of about 30–36 troops. |
| 9.
|Smallest military outfit, with a strength of about 9–13 personnel. Commanded by a non-commissioned officer of the rank of subedar, depending upon the working conditions of the section. |
{{Legend|#EEEE88|Indicates staff and higher command positions and offices}}{{Legend|#EEEEEE|Indicates common command positions}}
=Corps=
There are nine corps (each including an independent signals brigade) and three corps-level formations (Air Defence,
Aviation and Strategic Forces).
| class="wikitable" | ||||
| Logo/War flag
!Corps !HQ Location !Current Commander !Major Corps Formations | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| |120x120px | I Corps{{efn|Formed in 1958 in Abbottabad, now based in Mangla; Fought in the 1965 and 1971 wars, as well as sent replacements to Kashmir for LOC.}} | Mangla, Azad Kashmir | Lieutenant General Nauman Zakaria | style="background:#88EEEE;" |
|
| |II Corps{{efn|Formed in 1968 in Lahore, transferred to Multan in 1969.}} | Multan, Punjab | Lieutenant General Ahsan Gulrez | style="background:#88EEEE;" |
| |
| 120x120px | IV Corps{{efn|Formed in 1965 in Multan, transferred to Lahore in 1969.}} | Lahore, Punjab | Lieutenant General Syed Fayyaz Hussain Shah
|style="background:#88EEEE;|
| |
| 120x120px | V Corps{{efn|Formed in 1975. 16, 18 IDs are all mechanized. Has a lot of independent Brigades as well, since it has all of Sindh to cover.}} | Karachi, Sindh | Lieutenant General Avais Dastagir | style="background:#88EEEE;" |
|
| 120x120px | X Corps{{efn|Raised in 1975 by Lt. Gen. Aftab Ahmad Khan}} | Rawalpindi, Punjab | Lieutenant General Shahid Imtiaz | style="background:#88EEEE;|
|
| 120x120px | XI Corps{{efn|Formed in 1975. Presently engaged in fighting in the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas}} | Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa | Lieutenant General Syed Omer Ahmed Bokhari | style="background:#88EEEE;" |
|
| |120x120px | XII Corps{{efn|Formed in 1985.}} | Quetta, Balochistan | Lieutenant General Rahat Naseem Ahmed Khan | style="background:#88EEEE;|
|
| XXX Corps{{efn|Formed in 1987. Each division has 4 brigades and an armoured division is in the process of raising.}} | Gujranwala, Punjab | Lieutenant General Syed Imdad Hussain Shah | style="background:#88EEEE;|
| |
| XXXI Corps{{efn|Formed in 1988.}} | Bahawalpur, Punjab | Lieutenant General Muhammad Aqeel | style="background:#88EEEE;|
| |
| Air Defence{{efn|Formed in 1990.}} | Rawalpindi, Punjab | Lieutenant General Muhammad Zafar Iqbal | style="background:#88EEEE;|
| |
| Strategic Forces | Rawalpindi, Punjab | Lieutenant General Shehbaz Khan | style="background:#88EEEE;|
| |
| Aviation{{efn|Formed in 1977.}} | Rawalpindi, Punjab | Major General Saeed Niazi | style="background:#88EEEE;|
|
=Regional formations=
In Pakistani military terminology, the regional commands are the temporary military formations that are structure based upon the conventional corps, and troop rotations are constant and varies based on the Pakistani war strategists' calculations.{{rp|309}}{{cite book |last1=Nawaz |first1=Shuja |title=The Battle for Pakistan: The Bitter US Friendship and a Tough Neighbourhood |date=10 April 2020 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-5381-4205-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gk_VDwAAQBAJ |access-date=19 November 2023 |language=en}} The regional commands are led by the three-star rank general officer whose staff includes numbers of general officers.{{rp|309}}
In past, the Eastern Command was organized at a corps-level conventional formation in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), consisting of the 9th Infantry Division, 14th Infantry Division, and 16th Infantry Division. These divisions are still active duty with their respected Regiments. To further support the Eastern Command, the 36th Adhoc Division and 39th Adhoc Division were commissioned to support the paramilitary units and police; and subsequently decommissioned after Eastern Command was de-activated.
To address the challenges and issues faced by the Cold Start strategy of Indian Army, the army formed regional commands to protect the North—South regions by establishing the first the Southern Command in 1999 and later the Northern Command in 2008.{{rp|310}} Other active regional formations includes the Army Strategic Forces Command and the Army Air Defence Command that serves as a platform of missile defense.{{rp|311}}
Regional formational commands
- Eastern Command (1960-1971)
- Northern Command (2008–Present)
- Southern Command (1999–Present)
- Army Strategic Forces Command (2002–Present)
- Army Air Defence Command (1999–Present)
- Army Cyber Command (2022–Present){{cite web | url=https://tribune.com.pk/story/2369646/firepower-cyber-have-emerged-as-mainstay-of-future-war-coas%3famp=1 | title=Firepower, cyber have emerged as mainstay of future war: COAS | date=5 August 2022 }}
Administrative structure
The Pakistan Army is organised in two main ways, which are Arms and Services.
=Regiments=
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|
|
|
Regiment
| | | | |
=Administrative Services=
- Pakistan Army Medical Corps
- Service Corps (ASC)
- Military Police (MP)
- Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (EME)
- Education (AEC)
- Remount Veterinary and Farms (RVFC)
- Ordnance (ORD)
- Military Intelligence (MI)
Notes
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