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Army Promotions

A GHQ Selection Board for promotion from Brigadier to Major General, headed by the President and COAS Pakistan Army Gen Pervez Musharraf, recently recommended 26 officers for promotion. Four of the Brigadiers belong to the Army Medical Corps (AMC),without graduating from the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA) Kakul as the other 22 would have done their promotion (or otherwise) would hardly have any influence on the mainstream Army. According to official sources, 805 Gentleman Cadets (GCs) were granted commission in 1975/1976, (52nd PMA Long Course, 53rd and part of 54th), of these officers 119 made it to the rank of Brigadier, i.e. almost 15%. Less than 3% of the original intake made it to two-star rank.

A couple of Brigadiers would have reason to feel hard done by for not being elevated to the next rank. By the same token in every Selection Board one, or maybe two, Brigadiers should consider themselves extremely lucky to have been promoted. The chink in the armour of fair selection, on the strength of Murphy’s Law which says that if something can go wrong it will, is the “grey area” that forms the discretionary power of the COAS where he exercises his discretion without any dissenting protest from the Corps Commanders who make up the Army’s “Knights of the Long Table”. Merit must remain the touchstone to sustain the professionalism of the Army. Some wrong selections have gone on to become Lt Gens in this Army, and because of the influence of three stars in some critical posts, at terrible cost to the reputation of the Armed Forces. The COAS’ discretion allows such person, or persons, to slip through an exhaustive and strict promotion dragnet from selection for Lt Col’s rank onwards.

The scientific selection process is more or less the same for  all  modern  armies  upto  the  rank of Lt Col, it involves three examinations for Promotion, from “Lieut to Captain” and “Captain to Major” and for the “Staff College Entrance”. Without passing these examinations and doing well in Staff College, upward advancement in the Army is impossible. Lt Gen Erich von Marcks, a German Paratroop officer, who got 8 out of a possible 200 in “Military Law” in his “Captain to Major” Examination, said, “thank God for wars”. The first deliberate elimination of officers after field grade rank of majors (next level Lt Col) applies to almost every Army in the world but in varying degrees. Objective criticism, and thereby conscientious dissent, is not taken in good faith, the result is that many Majors having a good professional track record alongwith conviction and conscience find their budding careers come to a dead stop because they could not stomach wrongdoing by their superiors. In the writing of the Annual Confidential Report (ACR), the reporting officer, particularly the Unit (and later Formation) Commander may lose professional objectivity because of personal likes and/or dislikes. This partial exercising of discretion cuts into the professionalism of the Army. Such discrimination takes place in every strata, civil or military, public sector or private but one has to be extra careful in the selection for higher rank in the Armed Forces, on their decision-making (or even lack of it) depends the lives of the men they command.

Officers who tend to be opinionated usually perform credibly in combat situations. If they have courage, or more correctly have control of fear in the face of enemy fire, they will not lack the courage of conviction to stand up against anything which is not correct, whether it be something contrary to the rules and regulations of the Army, or the laws of the land, etc. The crucial stage is far more important for the fighting arms i.e. infantry, armour, artillery and combat engineers than for the “Services” comprising the supply corps, ordnance, signals, etc. Commands,  corps,  divisions,  brigades and battalions/regiments fight battles as the case maybe, the critical level of command are where men are directly commanded by officers themselves engaged personally in battle i.e. the rifle company or battalion of infantry, squadron of armour, etc, this cutting edge of leadership separates the men from the boys, the leaders from the chaff. During both 1971 and later Balochistan in 1973, as Company Commanders contending with the enemy was of secondary consideration, it was far more difficult contending with Lt Col (later Brig) Muhammad Taj SJ & Bar from breathing down our necks, an outstanding  example  of  a  Commanding   Officer leading from the front, above and beyond the call of duty. It is also important for those seeking promotion to rank higher than Lt Col to have combat experience, anyone who has not heard a shot being fired in anger should not be promoted past the rank of Major. For a Lt Col not having seen combat should be unthinkable in the Pakistan Army, given that Siachen, Kargil and other military operations in the recent past. For a serving Lt Gen (given 1971 vintage and including 1973-75 Balochistan) to be without combat experience would be shocking. Regretfully combat-inoculated officers are usually victims of their own brashness, they suffer jealousy because of their own professionalism, being labelled dangerously independent because of the inferiority complex they inspire in their superiors.

Except perhaps for scandals in the procurement of materials and supplies, in the military engineering services, etc financial scandals of any note have always been rare in the Army. More often than not, the culprits are traced out and duly punished. For the last decade or so, the Army has started to get a bad name because of a deliberate vilification campaign, regretfully it is mostly untrue. The public perception of wrongdoing is force-multiplied because of the deputationists with civil departments and  semi-autonomous  organizations. Controversies at the Lt Gen level do not help, it is wrongly believed universally in Pakistan that all three stars are riding a gravy train living off the fat of the land. The Corps Commanders at Karachi and Lahore (because of the Defence Housing Authorities, DHAs), the QMG, AG, etc fall in this circle of deliberate misinformation, inexplicably why do Corps Commanders at Multan, Bahawalpur, Quetta, Gujranwala, Mangla, Rawalpindi and Peshawar almost never get scandals associated with their names? While one can only claim hearsay about Lahore, wags had one three star selling land on the Indian side of the BRB. Not true, but where there is smoke there is fire for people to exploit. Excellent Maj Gens became controversial Lt Gens as Corps Commanders in Karachi. On the other hand, Lt Gens Lehrasab Khan and Arif Bangash also did Karachi tenures but never had even a hint of scandal associated with their names. To eliminate this potential for bad reputation, why not terminate the ability of  Corps  Commanders  Lahore  and  Karachi  as  Head  of the respective DHAs to dole out plots of land or enhance the area of the plots. One esteemed Guderian increased his own plot size in Karachi twice by requesting for enhancement to the Administrator as an individual allottee and then himself accepting the recommendation of the Administrator as the President of the Executive Committee. One, or at the most two plots, should include the normal allotment on the Army Housing Scheme, The public reaction is so much, some would even abolish the Army Housing Scheme, I patently disagree, this would be tragic.  More than 95% of the officers, particularly in the rank of Majors and Lt Cols, on retirement they have this house as the only shelter over their heads after 25-30 years of nomadic service to the State. The Army hierarchy has to become more sensitive about “real estate” issues, at present this is sticking like mud to the Army’s pristine reputation.

This is a great army, ready and able to defend the country’s external and internal frontiers, come rain, hail or shine. The present military hierarchy can ensure that the shenanigans of disgraceful exceptions do not become public property. Army promotions must only to be done on merit as is being done mostly with a caveat, those promoted to the penultimate rank must not be allowed to make loot for themselves out of public property.

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