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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Pakistan
Index
The key holder of power in the armed forces and, along
with
the president and the prime minister, one of the
triumvirate that
runs the country is the chief of the army staff
(COAS)--formerly
called the commander in chief. In 1994 this post was held
by
General Abdul Waheed. The COAS operates from army
headquarters in
Rawalpindi, near Islamabad. From this position, both Ayub
Khan
and Zia seized power. Other senior staff positions, at the
lieutenant general level, include a chief of general
staff, who
supervises army intelligence and operations; the master
general
of ordnance; the quartermaster general; the adjutant
general; the
inspector general for evaluation and training; and the
military
secretary. The headquarters function also includes the
chief of
the Corps of Engineers, the judge advocate general, and
the
comptroller of civilian personnel, all of whom report to
the vice
chief of the army staff.
The army is organized into nine corps: First Corps at
Mangla;
Second Corps at Multan; Fourth Corps at Lahore; Fifth
Corps at
Karachi; Tenth Corps at Rawalpindi; Eleventh Corps at
Peshawar;
Twelfth Corps at Quetta; Thirtieth Corps at Gujranwala;
and
Thirty-first Corps at Bahawalpur. There is also the
Northern Area
Command, headquartered at Gilgit, directly responsible to
army
general headquarters.
Active army strength in 1994 was 520,000. In addition,
there
were 300,000 reserve personnel. Reserve status lasted for
eight
years after leaving active service or until age forty-five
for
enlisted men and age fifty for officers.
In 1994 major weapons included nearly 2,000 tanks
(mainly
Chinese but also 120 M-47s and 280 M-48A5s of United
States
origin), 820 M-113 armored personnel carriers, 1,566 towed
artillery pieces, 240 self-propelled artillery pieces, 45
multiple rocket launchers, 725 mortars, 800 Cobra, TOW,
and Green
Arrow antitank guided weapons, eighteen Hatf
surface-to-surface
missiles, 2,000 air defense guns, and 350 Stinger and
Redeye
missiles and 500 Anza surface-to-air missiles. The army's
combat
aircraft inventory consisted of twenty AH-1F airplanes
equipped
with TOW missiles (see
table 14, Appendix).
Paramilitary organizations, which were mainly of
symbolic
importance, included the 185,000-member National Guard,
comprising the Janbaz Force--locally recruited militia
mainly
charged with air defense--and two programs similar to the
United
States Reserve Officers Training Corps, the National Cadet
Corps
and the Women Guard. The Women Guard, unlike the National
Cadet
Corps, included individuals trained in nursing, welfare,
and
clerical work. There were also some women in the Janbaz
Force,
and a very small number of women were recruited into the
regular
service in limited numbers to perform medical and
educational
work.
Paramilitary internal security forces were organized on
the
provincial level but were subordinate to the Ministry of
Interior
and were commanded by seconded army generals. These forces
were
in effect an extension of the army for internal security
duties.
The Pakistan Rangers, headquartered in Lahore, dealt with
unrest
in Punjab, while the Mehran Force performed similar
functions in
Sindh. In 1994 their strengths were 25,000 and 24,000,
respectively, divided into "wings" of approximately 800
men each.
The Frontier Corps, with a strength of 65,000, was based
in
Peshawar and Quetta with responsibility for the North-West
Frontier Province and Balochistan. The corps was
responsible to
both the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions and to
army
headquarters. The corps was divided into twenty-seven
local
units--fourteen in the North-West Frontier Province and
thirteen
in Balochistan--and included the Chitral Scouts, the
Khyber
Rifles, the Kurram Militia, the Tochi Scouts, the South
Waziristan Scouts, the Zhob Militia, and the Gilgit
Scouts. There
was also a Coast Guard, subordinate to the Ministry of
Interior
and staffed by army personnel.
In times of natural disaster, such as the great floods
of
1992, army engineers, medical and logistics personnel, and
the
armed forces played a major role in bringing relief and
supplies.
The army also engaged in extensive economic activities.
Most of
these enterprises, such as stud and dairy farms, were for
the
army's own use, but others performed functions beneficial
to the
local civilian economy. Army factories produced such goods
as
sugar, fertilizer, and brass castings and sold them to
civilian
consumers.
Several army organizations performed functions that
were
important to the civilian sector across the country. For
example,
the National Logistics Cell was responsible for trucking
food and
other goods across the country; the Frontier Works
Organization
built the Karakoram Highway to China; and the Special
Communication Organization maintained communications
networks in
remote parts of Pakistan.
Data as of April 1994
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