Pakistan Army (Urdu: پاک فوج Pak Fauj (IPA: pɑk fɒ~ɔd͡ʒ); Reporting name: PA) is the land-based service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. It came into the existence from the British Indian Army that ceased to exist following the partition of India that resulted in the independence of Pakistan on 14 August 1947.:1-2[1] According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), it had approximately 620,000 active personnel as of 2015.[2] In Pakistan, there is 16–23 years of age for voluntary military service; soldiers cannot be deployed for combat until age 18 according to its nation's constitution.[3]
The primary objective and its constitutional mission is to ensure the national security and national unity of Pakistan by defending it against external aggression or threat of war, and internal threat by maintaining peace and security within its land borders by requisitioning it by the government to cope with internal threats.[4] During the events of national calamities and emergency, it conducts humanitarian rescue operations at home as well as participating in the peacekeeping missions mandated by the United Nations, most notably playing a major role in rescuing the trapped U.S. soldiers in Somalia in 1993 and Bosnian War in 1992–95.:70[5]
The Pakistan Army, which is a major component of the national power alongside with the Pakistan Air Force and Pakistan Navy, has been involved with four wars on its borders with neighbouring India and several armed skirmishes on its porous border with Afghanistan.[6] Since 1960s, the elements of the army has been repeatedly deployed to act as military advisory in the Arab states during the events of Arab-Israeli Wars, aided the UN-based coalition in the first Gulf War. Other notable military operations on War on Terror in the 21st century included: Operation Zarb-e-Azb, Operation Black Thunderstorm, and Operation Rah-e-Nijat.[7]
Due to its constitutional mandate protected by the Constitution to "act in aid of civilian government when called upon to do so"[8], the army has been involved in enforcing martial law against the elected governments in a view of attempting to restore the law and order in the country four times in past years, and has wider commercial, foreign, and political interests in the country.[9][10][11][12][13]
The Pakistan Army has a regimental system but is operationally and geographically divided into command zones, with basic field of being the corps.[14] The Constitution allows the President of Pakistan to be its civilian Commander-in-Chief.[15] The Pakistan Army is commanded by the Chief of Army Staff, by statute a four-star rank general, who is senior member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, is appointed by the Prime Minister and confirmed by the President of Pakistan.[16] In its current command capacity, the Pakistan Army is currently under the command of General Qamar Javed Bajwa, appointed on 29 November 2016.[17][18]
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