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Chief of the General Staff (Pakistan)

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Chief of General Staff
Flag of the Pakistan Army
Incumbent
Lt-Gen. Muhammad Avais Dastgir
since 28 November 2023
 Pakistan Army
TypePrincipal Staff Officer
AbbreviationCGS
Reports to COAS
SeatGHQ (Pakistan Army)
Appointer COAS
First holderMajor General Ross Cairns McCay

Chief of the 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.[1] Since 1985, a three-star rank Lt. Gen. is appointed to the post.

History

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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 had served a tenure as the CGS. Of the five who hadn't, 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 Muhammad 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. Gen 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

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# Portrait Name Start of term End of term Unit of Commission
1 Major General

Ross Cairns McCay[2] DSO

1948 1951 6th Rajputana Rifles
2 Major General

Akbar Khan, DSO

1951 1951 6/13 Frontier Force Rifles (1 FF)
3 Major General

Mohammad Yusuf Khan

26 March 1951[3] 1953
4 Major General

Mian Hayaud Din
HJ MBE MC

1953 1955 4/12 Frontier Force Regiment (6FF)
5

Major General

Sher Ali Khan Pataudi
HJ

1955 1957 7th Light Cavalry
6 Major General[1][2]

Yahya Khan

25 July 1957[4] 23 December 1962 4th Battalion (Duke of Connaught's Own) The Baluch Regiment (11 Baluch)
7 Major General

Malik Sher Bahadur

24 December 1962[5] 1966 4th Battalion (Duke of Connaught's Own) The Baluch Regiment (11 Baluch)
8 Major General[3]

Sahabzada Yaqub Khan
SPk

1966 19 December 1968 18th King Edward's Own Cavalry
9 Major General[4]

Gul Hassan Khan
SQA SPk

20 December 1968[6] 19 December 1971 5th Horse (Probyn's Horse)
10 Major General

M. Rahim Khan

1972 1974
11 Major General[5]

Muhammad Iqbal Khan, NI(M) SI(M) SBt

July 1974 March 1976 5th Battalion (Queen Victoria's Own Corps of Guides) 12 Frontier Force Regiment (2 FF)
12 Major General

Abdullah Malik

March 1976 March 1978
13 Major General[6]

F. S. Lodhi

March 1978 June 1980 East Bengal Regiment
14 Major General

Mirza Aslam Beg, NI(M) SI(M) SBt

June 1980 October 1985 16 Baloch Regiment
15 Lieutenant General

Muhammad Safdar

October 1987 January 1988 Punjab Regiment
16 Lieutenant General

Mian Muhammad Afzaal, HI(M) SI(M) SBt

January 1988 August 1988 6 Lancers
17 Lieutenant General[7][8]

Shamim Alam Khan, NI(M) SBt SJ

May 1989 April 1991 20th Lancers
18 Lieutenant General

Asif Nawaz Janjua, NI(M) HI(M) SBt

April 1991 August 1991 5 Punjab Regiment
19 Lieutenant General

Farrakh Khan

August 1991 July 1994 15th Lancers
20 Lieutenant General [9][10]

Jehangir Karamat, NI(M) SBt

July 1994 January 1996 13th Lancers
21 Lieutenant General

Iftikhar Ali Khan, HI(M) SBt

January 1996 May 1997 11 Baloch Regiment
22 Lieutenant General

Ali Kuli Khan Khattak, HI(M)

May 1997 October 1998 12 Baloch Regiment
23 Lieutenant General[11][12]

Muhammad Aziz Khan, NI(M) HI(M) SBt TBt

October 1998 August 2000 12 Punjab Regiment
24 Lieutenant General[13]

Muhammad Yusaf Khan

August 2000 October 2001 The Guides Cavalry (Frontier Force)
25 Lieutenant General

Shahid Aziz

October 2001 December 2003 10th Baloch Regiment
26 Lieutenant General[14][15]

Tariq Majid, NI(M)

December 2003 October 2006 28 Baloch Regiment
27 Lieutenant General

Salahuddin Satti

October 2006 October 2008 40 Punjab Regiment
28 Lieutenant General

Muhammad Mustafa Khan

October 2008 April 2010
29 Lieutenant General [16][17]

Khalid Shameem Wynne, NI(M) HI(M)

April 2010 October 2010 20 Punjab Regiment
30 Lieutenant General

Waheed Arshad, HI(M) TBt

October 2010 January 2013 16 Horse
31 Lieutenant General [18][19]

Rashad Mahmood, NI(M) HI(M)

January 2013 November 2013 7 Baloch Regiment
32 Lieutenant General

Ishfaq Nadeem Ahmad, HI(M)

November 2013 April 2015 34 Azad Kashmir Regiment
33 Lieutenant General[20][21]

Zubair Mahmood Hayat, NI(M)

April 2015 November 2016 3 (Self Propelled) Medium Regiment Artillery
34 Lieutenant General

Bilal Akbar

December 2016 August 2018 Corps of Artillery
35 Lieutenant General[22][23]

Nadeem Raza, NI(M) HI(M)

August 2018 November 2019 10 Sind Regiment
36 Lieutenant General

Sahir Shamshad Mirza

November 2019 September 2021 8 Sind Regiment
37 Lieutenant General

Azhar Abbas

8 September 2021 December 2022 41 Baloch Regiment
38 Lieutenant General

Muhammad Saeed

December 2022 November 2023 10 Sind Regiment
39 Lieutenant General

Avais Dastgir

November 2023 Incumbent

See also

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Notes

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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

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  1. ^ Syed, Baqir Sajjad (Aug 14, 2016). "Who will be the next army chief?". DAWN.COM. Retrieved Aug 3, 2020.
  2. ^ "Biography of Lieutenant-General Ross Cairns McCay (1895 – 1969), Great Britain". generals.dk. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
  3. ^ The Army List. 1952. p. 112.
  4. ^ The Army List. 1960. p. 123.
  5. ^ The Army List. 1964. p. 85.
  6. ^ The Army List. 1969. p. 99.
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