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Pakistan Armed Forces

Last modified: 2011-05-27 by ian macdonald
Keywords: pakistan | armed forces | joint chiefs of staff |
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Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee

 [Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee] by Joe McMillan

Here is the flag of the Pakistani Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, taken from Album des Pavillons (2000). I used the 5:8 ratio given in the Album, even though its image is actually the same 2:3 size used for the President and Chief of Naval Staff images on either side of the Chairman's flag in the Album. I preserved the ratio of white to green of 1 to 5 and used RGB 0:102:51 as the closest match for the shade of green. The central device and wreath are touched up from a scan of the Album picture, used with permission.
Joe McMillan, 19 February 2001

I can confirm, from a meeting at Joint Staff Headquarters, that the flag shown in Album des Pavillons (2000) is correct, except that the veining in the leaves is light yellow rather than green and the yellow circle surrounding the badge is narrower. It flies outside the Joint Staff HQ along with the national flag and the
Joint Staff flag and is displayed with the national flag in the conference room. The embroidered version in the conference room is trimmed with green, white, red, yellow, dark blue, and light blue intermingled fringe; the national flag with which it is displayed has green and white intermingled fringe. Both appear to be less than the normal 2:3 ratio--possibly 3:4 or 4:5--but I wasn't in a position to do any measuring.
Joe McMillan, 12 January 2003

Joint Staff

[Joint Staff] by Joe McMillan

A vertical tricolor red-dark blue-light blue, with the same combined services device as on the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee flag on the center (without the gold ring). On the outdoor flag, the device was fimbriated white (shown here); on the indoor flag displayed in the Director General's office it was fimbriated gold.
Joe McMillan, 12 January 2003

[Joint Staff] image located by Dave Martucci, 22 April 2011

On the CTV News web page this morning there is a photo that includes some Pakistan military flags. At first glance I thought the colors were very different but when I copied the picture and changed the brightness some, the darkest color in the three flags at the right side are all green, as expected, and the two on the left are dark blue, also as expected. However the flag of the Pakistan Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee shows the vertical stripes in a different order than above. The flag in the photo has vertical stripes of red, dark blue, light blue from the hoist to the fly rather than the dark blue, red, and light blue order we show on the site. The CTV News page is at http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/World/20110422/pakistan-afghan-border-missile-strikes-110422.
Dave Martucci, 22 April 2011

Defense Service Guard

The flag of the Defense Service Guard: Horizontally divided light blue-dark blue-red with a silver emblem in the middle (slightly spreading over the upper and lower stripes). Emblem includes two spreading wings, an anchor and two sabers in saltire. Below is a ribbon with D.S.G.
Michel Lupant, reported by Ivan Sache, 16 October 2001

Army Flag

[Army] by Arfan Hashmi, 23 May 2005

The flag has a white a stripe along the hoist, two crossed swords and the crescent and star.

[Army] 2:3, by Joe McMillan

The car of a lieutenant general assigned to the Army GHQ carried a green flag with the army device (crossed scimitars in white with gold hilts and pommels beneath the white crescent and star opening toward the upper hoist). Based on its similarity to flags used by other British-derived armies, I'd guess this is the Pakistan Army flag. I saw this as a car flag on a senior Army officer's car.
Joe McMillan, 12 January 2003

Flags of Senior Officers in the Pakistani Army

[Army badge] by Ralph Kelly

On the television news tonight was film of a Pakistan military parade. In the foreground was a Pakistan flag which substituted the Army emblem for the crescent and star. Is this an army flag? Has it been previously reported? Attached is the Pakistan Army emblem, from a website called Fifty Years of the Pakistan Army.
Ralph Kelly, 5 October 2002

It depends on the proportion of the flag. If it's 2:3, it's the army chief of staff flag. If it's 1:2, it's the army commander-in-chief flag. There is also a swallow-tailed, 2:3 variant, for general officers. All three flags are shown in Flags of All Nations (HMSO 1958).
Miles Li, 5 October 2002

I don't think it is any of these flags. The image, albeit seen very briefly, substituted the army emblem on to a flag with the same proportions as the Pakistani national flag. Both the Chief of Staff and Commander in Chief flags, as per BR20 Volume II, have a very narrow white vertical stripe, whereas the flag observed had the normal width of the the white stripe.
Ralph Kelly, 5 October 2002

There is no such position as commander-in-chief of the army. The army is headed by the chief of army staff (not "chief of staff of the army")--General Pervez Musharraf at the moment--and below him the several corps commanders. I believe Commander-in-Chief is the former title, used up to the 1950s, which could account for its appearance in Flags of All Nations (HMSO 1958).
Joe McMillan, 6 October 2002

In Mohamed Amin et al. (1988), Defenders of Pakistan (Lahore: Ferozsons (Pvt) Ltd, 1988) it is stated (p. 73): A tank described as "Command Tank, flying the Commander's pennants..." The photo shows two small red triangular pennants one above the other on the lower part of an antenna.

(p.108): A parade of tanks shows the center leading vehicle with soldiers standing in the turret carrying a pair of colors, designs not visible. Each tank in the two left (of three) columns carries a small red triangular pennant on the antenna, while the tanks in the right column each have two such pennants, similar to the picture on page 73. The same arrangement appears in a photo of armored personnel carriers on page 111.

(p.109): A parade of the Presidential Bodyguard shows the same red-over-white pennons mentioned above, plus two troopers carrying small national flags with cords and tassels and silver crescent-and-star finials. The flags appear to be about 35-40 cm on the hoist. They are not flying free, so I cannot tell whether any additional emblems appear other than the crescent and star.

(p. 110): In a formation of self-propelled howitzers, the center lead vehicle has a soldier carrying a colour consisting of the national flag with a badge embroidered in the upper hoist. The dimensions appear to conform to British usage (36 x 45 inches) and the flag is trimmed with apparently white fringe and carried on a staff with a silver crescent and star finial. Some of the howitzers carry two swallow-tailed pennants, red over blue, on the antenna.
Joe McMillan, 2 January 2003

Chief of Army Staff

[Chief of Army staff] by Arfan Hashmi, 23 May 2005

The flag of the Chief of Army Staff  is similar to that of the army, but the emblem is surrounded by a wreath.
Arfan Hashmi, 23 May 2005

Pakistan Army Rank Flags

Notwithstanding the discussion above, HMSO 1958 shows three flags of rank for positions in the Pakistan army.

Chief of Staff

[Chief of Staff] by Miles Li

Commander-in-Chief

[Commander-in-Chief] by Miles Li

Principal Staff Officers

[Principal Staff Officers] by Miles Li

National Defence College

A green flag with the college emblem on the center in color.
Joe McMillan, 12 January 2003

Staff College

[Staff College] by Arfan Hashmi

Maroon/dark red background superimposed by the college's arms. The wording in Arabic reads "IQRA" (meaning 'say'). These were also the first words conveyed to the Prophet Muhammad SAW by the Angel Gabriel in the caves of Mount Hira after which he (the Prophet) started his mission [to spread Islam].
Arfan Hashmi, 23 May 2005

Pakistan Military Academy Kakul

[Pakistan Military Academy Kakul] by Arfan Hashmi

The Pakistan Military Academy Kakul, equivalent to Sandhurst or West Point, shows a stylised format of the army's crossed swords and crescent and star.
Arfan Hashmi, 23 May 2005

Forces Command Northern Area, Gilgit

Flying above the main gate of the headquarters, orange with the command formation sign on the center (a black disk with a silver snow leopard salient issuing from the fly edge of the disk). Note that, as in India, most army posts apparently do not fly the national flag on a regular basis. At least the one in Gilgit didn't.
Joe McMillan, 12 January 2003

Brigade commander, FCNA

A car pennant: the same snow leopard device on a black (or possibly dark blue) triangular pennant. In a briefing at the headquarters, I noticed that Pakistan uses emblems of the same shape to indicate brigade headquarters on maps, so I would guess all brigade commanders use triangular pennants with the higher headquarters formation sign on them.
Joe McMillan, 12 January 2003

Corps commander

[Corps Commander] 2:3, by Joe McMillan

Car flag - These seem to be flag versions of the corps formation signs. The one I saw was red with a white horizontal stripe slightly above center with a yellow rising sun issuing from the lower edge of the white stripe, 11 rays visible (10th Corps). I also saw a similar red-white-red flag with a black disk on the center inscribed with a white A--not sure what command that would represent.
Joe McMillan, 12 January 2003

A couple of weeks ago I reported having seen the car flag of the general officer commanding the Tenth Corps of the Pakistan Army. A little more digging has taught me that the horizontal R-W-R pattern for corps formation signs--and therefore corps commander flags--is traditional for armies with a British heritage. There are also standard patterns for the flags of army or command commanders, divisions, and brigades. These will become more apparent when I turn to more Indian material from Maj Gen Chand Das's book.

Anyway, X Corps, Pakistan Army - The GOC flies a red-white-red horizontal triband with a rising sun issuing from the lower edge of the white stripe. Besides its use on the GOC's automobiles, it would also fly at his headquarters. Other corps commanders would also use red-white-red tribands but with the charges from their respective corps formation signs in lieu of the sunburst.

Khyber Rifles flag

[Khyber Rifles] by Arfan Hashmi, 23 May 2005

At the border post at Torkham, the crossing point between Pakistan and Afghanistan at the Afghan end of the Khyber Pass, on the Pakistani side of the gate were two flagpoles, one with the Pakistani national flag and the other with the flag of the Khyber Rifles, the unit of the Pakistani Frontier Corps responsible for law and order in the area surrounding the Khyber Pass. The Khyber Rifles flag is a horizontal tricolor, black-white-light blue, with the Khyber Rifles emblem (a stylized representation of Jamrud Fort surmounting two Pathan fighting knives in saltire) on a red disk on the center. (Identification of this latter flag courtesy of an officer of our Khyber Rifles escort.)
Joe McMillan, 22 January 2002