Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army


The Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army was normally the highest-ranking officer in the Pakistan Army from the country's independence to 1972. The C-in-C was directly responsible for commanding the army. It was an administrative position and the appointment holder had main operational command authority over the army.
Direct appointments to the command of the Pakistan Army came from the British Army Council until 1951, when the first native commander-in-chief was nominated and appointed by the Government of Pakistan.
The C-in-C was assisted by a deputy C-in-C until the late 1960s. The last deputy C-in-C was Abdul Hamid Khan, who served until 1969. The C-in-C designation was changed to 'Chief of Army Staff' in 1972, Tikka Khan was the first person to hold the new title. Six men have served as C-in-C, the first two of them were native British and the post was largely akin to the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army.

History


Prior to creation of Pakistan from the partition of India on 14 August 1947, the senior military general officer commanding of the Pakistan Army were the ad-hoc appointments made by the Army Board of the British Army.
The appointment was known as Commander-in-Chief who directly reported to the Governor-General who was also under British monarchs. Field Marshal Sir Claude Auchinleck was the last Commander-in-Chief of the undivided British Indian Army who became the supreme commander of India and Pakistan in 15 August 1947 serving till November 30 of the year. On 15 August General Frank Messervy became the first C-in-C of the Pakistan Army.
In 1969, when General Yahya Khan became President of Pakistan, the then deputy commander-in-chief of the army Lieutenant General Abdul Hamid Khan was promoted to full General and was appointed as the 'Chief of Staff of the Army', a newly created post which was akin to Chief of Staff of the United States Army. On 20 March 1972, the commander-in-chief post was renamed as "Chief of Army Staff " with Lieutenant-General Tikka Khan elevated to four star rank to be appointed as army's first chief of army staff.
The term of the superannuation was then constrained to three years in the office as opposed to four years and was made a permanent member of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee.

Appointees

The following table chronicles the appointees to the office of the Commander-in-Chief since the independence of Pakistan.

Commander-in-Chief, Pakistan Army (1947-1972)