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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Pakistan
Index
The Indian military had no role in the relinquishment
of
control by the British and the division of India into two
parts--
India and Pakistan. Under their British commanders, the
Indian
military had resisted the nationalist tide, and then, when
London
changed its course, Indian military personnel obediently
shifted
their allegiance to new masters. After partition and
independence, the relationship between the military and
the new
nationalist government in India was at first problematic.
India's
first prime minister, Jawalharlal Nehru, deliberately
limited the
expansion and modernization of his country's armed forces,
fearing that an excessive emphasis on the military would
lead to
the militarization of society and undermine the nation's
fledgling democratic institutions.
The Pakistani military, however, immediately became a
central
part of the national consciousness. Unlike their Indian
counterparts, Pakistani soldiers did not bear the stigma
of being
antinational. The main base of army recruitment, Punjab,
was at
the heart of Pakistan, and the army was immediately called
upon
to defend the interests of the nation against a perceived
security threat from "Hindu India."
The Pakistani army was fortunate in its political
position,
but less so in regard to the experience and technical
expertise
required to field an effective military force. Muslims had
been
significantly underrepresented in the Indian officer
corps, and
when partition occurred, there was a severe shortage of
personnel. To lead the planned army of 150,000 men, 4,000
officers were needed, but there were only 2,500, and many
of
those, especially in the technical services, were
underqualified.
Only one major general, two brigadiers, and six colonels
were
available, and in the middle officer ranks the situation
was
equally bad. The first two commanders in chief of the army
were
British. The first Pakistani commander in chief--General
Mohammad
Ayub Khan--did not become commander in chief of the army
until
1951. In the small Pakistani navy and air force, the
situation
was even worse: there were only nine regular officers in
the navy
and sixty-five pilots in the air force. Both forces had to
be
commanded by British officers: the navy until 1953 and the
air
force until 1957. Overall, some 500 British officers were
retained on contract to ease the transition of the armed
forces
until Pakistanis could be qualified and promoted. In the
interim,
training underqualified officers for rapid promotion was a
matter
of top priority.
The lack of equipment presented further problems. Most
of the
depots and virtually all of the military production
facilities
were located in areas that became India, which was less
than
forthcoming in handing over the share of military matériel
that
was due Pakistan under the partition agreement. Pakistan
received
little or nothing in the way of ships and only two of the
ten
squadrons of the former Royal Indian Air Force. Pakistani
military historian Fazl Muqeem Khan records: "It is no
exaggeration to say that for its first few months the
infant
state of Pakistan was without an organized army."
Units with a majority of Muslims (as well as individual
Muslims in other units who opted for Pakistan) that were
located
in India had to find their way to Pakistan. These men
formed into
new units based on common traditions and class
affiliation; the
remaining service gaps were gradually filled by
recruitment.
Intercommunal violence at partition took a huge toll of
lives,
and the role played by the army in protecting the citizens
of the
new Pakistan created an important initial bond between
army and
people.
The crucial challenge to the new Pakistani military was
the
outbreak of hostilities with India over the disputed state
of
Jammu and Kashmir immediately after partition
(see Problems at Independence
, ch. 1). Unlike most of the rulers of the
other
princely states of India, the Hindu ruler of Kashmir (as
it is
usually called) hesitated in declaring the allegiance of
his
largely Muslim realm to one or the other of the new
nations.
Bands of Muslim tribesmen from Pakistan--together with
"volunteers" from the Pakistani army--entered the state in
early
October 1947 to force the issue and, after joining up with
insurgents within Kashmir, were soon threatening to
overwhelm the
Kashmiri forces. As the price for protection, the ruler
acceded
to India, and elements of the Indian army arrived on
October 27.
They soon routed the Pakistani irregulars and moved
westward to
consolidate control over all of the state. Pakistan
committed
regular military formations to combat in May 1948 to
ensure its
borders and stabilize the situation. Fighting continued
until
January 1, 1949, when a United Nations-sponsored
cease-fire took
effect. The cease-fire did not, however, settle the
underlying
conflict. The dispute flared up several times again, most
notably
in 1965, and remained unresolved as of early 1994. The
Indian and
Pakistani armies remained deployed along much the same
line as
they had in 1949. The Pakistani army, however, performed
credibly
in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947-48 and won immense
admiration
and support among Pakistanis, on which it drew heavily as
Pakistan began to pay the price of developing a military
capability to offset that of India.
Data as of April 1994
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