From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Chief of the General Staff (Pakistan)

Head of the Pakistan Army GHQ staff

Summary

Head of the Pakistan Army GHQ staff

Field	Value
post	Chief of General Staff
native_name
flag	Flag of the Pakistani Army.svg
flagborder	yes
flagcaption	Flag of the Pakistan Army
imagesize	150
incumbent	Lt-Gen. Syed Aamer Raza
department
type	Principal Staff Officer
abbreviation	CGS
reports_to	C-in-C (1947-72)
[[File:Flag of the Chief of the Army Staff (Pakistan).svg	20px]] COAS (since 1972)
seat	GHQ (Pakistan Army)
appointer	[[File:Flag of the Chief of the Army Staff (Pakistan).svg	20px]] COAS
formation
first	Major General Reginald Antony Hutton

Chief of General Staff (abbreviated as CGS) is the most coveted position within the Pakistan Army after that of the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS). Although the COAS is the head of the land forces, the CGS is "the organizational lead on both intelligence and operations", hence being in charge of the Military Intelligence (MI) and Military Operations (MO) Directorates. Since 1985, a three-star rank Lt. Gen. is appointed to the post.

History

The criteria for the positions of Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) and Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) have a preference that the officer should have served as the Chief of General Staff. Of the last 13 four-star rank army generals, eight officers have served as the CGS. Of the five who had not, Pervez Musharraf and Ashfaq Parvez Kayani had served as Director General of Military Operations (DGMO), while Ehsan ul Haq had served as Director General of Military Intelligence (DGMI), all two-star postings under the CGS.

Historically, the Chief of General Staff, in addition to Commander X Corps have political significance when the army chief wanted to overthrow political leadership. The 1999 Pakistani coup d'état, which brought General Pervez Musharraf to power had active involvement of Lt Gen Aziz Khan, then CGS and Lt Gen Mahmud Ahmed, commander of the X Corps.

Therefore, the army chief essentially appoints his most trusted aides for these two postings before making a routine reshuffle. General Ziauddin Butt, who was nominated by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif after retiring Pervez Musharraf, passed his first orders to appoint Lt Gen Muhammad Akram as CGS and Lt Gen Salim Haider as commander X Corps. But before this order could be conveyed to the rest of the army, Aziz and Mahmud took steps to reverse the order by overthrowing the government and thus essentially starting the 1999 coup.

List of Chiefs of General Staff

#	Portrait	Name	Start of term	End of term	Unit of Commission
1		Major General	1947	1951	2nd Gurkha Rifles
2		Major General	1951	1951	6/13 Frontier Force Rifles (1 FF)
3		Major General	26 March 1951	1953
4	[[File:Major General M. Hayaud-Din.jpg	frameless	88x88px]]	Major General	1953	1955	4/12 Frontier Force Regiment (6FF)
5	[[File:Sher Ali Khan Pataudi.jpg	frameless	88x88px]]		1955	December 1956	7th Light Cavalry
6	[[File:CGS Habibullah Khan Khattak.jpg	frameless	88x88px]]		24 January 1957	July 1957	12 Baluch Regiment
7		Major General	25 July 1957	23 December 1962	3rd Battalion (Queen Mary's Own, 10th Baluch Regiment (10 Baluch)
8		Major General	24 December 1962	1966	4th Battalion (Duke of Connaught's Own) The Baluch Regiment (11 Baluch)
9	[[File:Sahabzada Yaqub Khan.jpg	frameless	101x101px]]	Major General	1966	19 December 1968	18th King Edward's Own Cavalry
10	[[File:Gul Hassan Khan.png	frameless	101x101px]]	Major General	20 December 1968	19 December 1971	5th Horse (Probyn's Horse)
11		Major General	1972	1974
12		Major General	July 1974	March 1976	5th Battalion (Queen Victoria's Own Corps of Guides) 12 Frontier Force Regiment (2 FF)
13		Major General	March 1976	March 1978	4 Punjab Regiment
14		Major General	March 1978	June 1980	East Bengal Regiment
15		Major General	June 1980	October 1985	16 Baloch Regiment
16		Lieutenant General	October 1987	January 1988	7 Punjab Regiment
17		Lieutenant General	January 1988	August 1988	6 Lancers
18	[[File:General Shamim Alam Khan.jpg	frameless	98x98px]]	Lieutenant General	May 1989	April 1991	20 Lancers
19	[[File:Asif Nawaz Janjua.png	frameless	101x101px]]	Lieutenant General	April 1991	August 1991	5 Punjab Regiment
20	[[File:Leiutenant General Farrakh Khan.jpg	frameless]]	Lieutenant General	August 1991	July 1994	15th Lancers
21	[[File:Jehangir Karamata.png	border	70px]]	Lieutenant General	July 1994	January 1996	13 Lancers
22		Lieutenant General	January 1996	May 1997	11 Baluch Regiment
23		Lieutenant General	May 1997	October 1998	12 Baloch Regiment
24	[[File:General Aziz Khan (cropped).jpg	frameless	107x107px]]	Lieutenant General	October 1998	August 2000	12 Punjab Regiment
25		Lieutenant General	August 2000	October 2001	The Guides Cavalry (Frontier Force)
26	[[File:At Fort Leavonworth, Kansas.jpg	frameless	101x101px]]	Lieutenant General	October 2001	December 2003	10th Baloch Regiment
27		Lieutenant General	December 2003	October 2006	28 Baloch Regiment
28		Lieutenant General	October 2006	October 2008	40 Punjab Regiment
29		Lieutenant General	October 2008	April 2010	38 Cavalry
30	[[File:Khalid Wynne (close-up).jpg	frameless	103x103px]]	Lieutenant General	April 2010	October 2010	20 Punjab Regiment
31		Lieutenant General	October 2010	January 2013	16 Horse
32		Lieutenant General	January 2013	November 2013	7 Baluch Regiment
33		Lieutenant General	November 2013	April 2015	34 Azad Kashmir Regiment
34	[[File:General Zubair.jpg	frameless	117x117px]]	Lieutenant General	April 2015	November 2016	3 (Self Propelled) Medium Regiment Artillery
35		Lieutenant General	December 2016	August 2018	Corps of Artillery
36	[[File:CJCSC Gen.Nadeem Raza.jpg	frameless	114x114px]]	Lieutenant General	August 2018	November 2019	10 Sind Regiment
37	[[File:General-sahir-shamshad-mirza.jpg	frameless	114x114px]]	Lieutenant General	November 2019	September 2021	8 Sind Regiment
38		Lieutenant General	8 September 2021	December 2022	41 Baluch Regiment
39		Lieutenant General	December 2022	25 November 2023	10 Sind Regiment
40	[[File:1402420-gen-avais-dastgir.webp	frameless	114x114px]]	Lieutenant General	25 November 2023	24 January 2025	58 Cavalry
41		Lieutenant General	24 January 2025	Incumbent	6 Lancers

Notes

1.Later promoted to lieutenant general in-office.

2.Later promoted to the post of a general.

3.Later promoted to Chairman Joint Chief of Staff Committee.

References

"Five Chiefs of General Staff served as head of Pakistan Army in 64 years".
Syed, Baqir Sajjad. (Aug 14, 2016). "Who will be the next army chief?".
(1962). "Who's who".
(1952). "The Army List". H.M. Stationery Office.
(25 January 1957). "New Chief Of General Staff". The Civil and Military Gazette (Lahore).
(1960). "The Army List". H.M. Stationery Office.
(1964). "The Army List". H.M. Stationery Office.
(1969). "The Army List". H.M. Stationery Office.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

pakistan-army-appointments

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Chief of the General Staff (Pakistan) — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report