Ministry of Defence (Pakistan)

The Ministry of Defence (Urdu: وزارت دفاع‎, Wazarat-e-Difa, abbreviated as MoD), is an executive ministry of the Government of Pakistan, tasked in defending Pakistan's national interests and values at home and abroad. It plays a major supporting role to the Pakistan Armed Forces and coordinates with a range of domestic, foreign and inter-governmental bodies.

Ministry of Defence
وزارت دفاع
Agency overview
FormedAugust 14, 1947 (1947-08-14)
JurisdictionGovernment of Pakistan
HeadquartersCalcutta House
Murree Road
Rawalpindi, Punjab, Pakistan. 46000
EmployeesUnknown (civilian)
654,000 (active)[1]
550,000 (reserves)[2]
Annual budgetUS$11.4 billion (2018)[3]
Minister responsible
Agency executives
Child agencies
Websitewww.mod.gov.pk

The existence and functions of the ministry are statutorily defined in Part XII, Chapter II[4] of the Constitution of Pakistan. The responsibilities for procurement, production and disposal of equipment were transferred in 2004 to the Ministry of Defence Production. The Ministry of Defence is one of the largest federal ministries of the Government of Pakistan in terms of budget as well as staff.

Hierarchy
Main article: Minister of Defence (Pakistan)

The Minister of Defence is Cabinet member, who is responsible for controlling the armed forces. The current Minister of Defence is Pervez Khan Khattak. The Secretary of Defence is the senior-most administrative figure within the ministry, who in recent decades has typically been a retired three-star Pakistani army general. The assistant secretaries serving under him are serving flag-officers belonging to the respective services.[5] The following is a simplified representation of the MoD's senior leadership:[6]

  • Minister of Defence (political head)
    • Secretary of Defence (administrative head)
      • Assistant Secretary I (Army)
        • Joint Secretary I (Army)
        • Joint Secretary III (Coordination)
      • Assistant Secretary II (Admin / PAF)
        • Joint Secretary V (Budgets & Public Accounts Committee)
        • Joint Secretary VII (Air Force)
      • Assistant Secretary III (Navy)
        • Joint Secretary II (Navy & Maritime)
        • Joint Secretary IV (Inter-Services)

History

The Ministry of Defence is a successor of the Military Department created by the British East India Company in Calcutta in 1776. Its main function was to coordinate and record orders, relating to the Army, issued by various Departments of the Government of the East India Company. The Military Department initially functioned as a branch of the Public Department and maintained a list of Army personnel. Following Pakistan's independence in 1947, the Ministry of Defence was established at Karachi in August of that year, with Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan also holding the Minister of Defence, while Iskander Mirza served as Defence Secretary. British flag officers remained commanders-in-chief of the army, navy and air force in Pakistan until 1956. In December 1959, the federal capital shifted temporarily to Rawalpindi, while plans for Islamabad were drawn up by then-General Ayub Khan's military government. The proximity of the Army Headquarters in Rawalpindi played a major role in the decision to relocate the capital. In March 1972, President Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in response to criticism over the difficulties in inter-service coordination in previous wars decreed that all service HQs were to move to Islamabad.[7] The Navy was the first to comply, with Naval Headquarters moving from Karachi to Sector E9 Islamabad 1974, while Air Headquarters moved from Peshawar to Sector E10 Islamabad in 1983. Following two failed assassination attempts in Rawalpindi, President Pervez Musharraf restarted plans in 2004 for the entire defence establishment to shift to Sector E10 in Islamabad where the Ministry of Defence along with the four service headquarters would be based.[8] This was subsequently cancelled in 2008 grounds of cost following Musharraf's forced resignation.[7] The Ministry of Defence is presently located at "Calcutta House" in Rawalpindi. Other related top-level head offices based in Rawalpindi include the Ministry of Defence Production (MoDP), Joint Staff Headquarters and the Army General Headquarters. The Air Headquarters and the Naval Headquarters are located in Islamabad.

Organization

The following organizations and services are under the Ministry of Defence:[9]

See also

References
  1. "India vs Pakistan: Military strength and arsenal". Al Jazeera. 26 February 2019. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
  2. "Global Fire Power Index 2019: Military strength and arsenal". Global Fire Power. 30 June 2019. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
  3. "Military expenditure by country, in constant (2017) US$ m., 1988-2018" (PDF). Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. 2019. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
  4. http://www.pakistani.org/pakistan/constitution/part12.ch2.html Part XII, Chapter II (Miscellaneous)
  5. http://202.83.164.29/mod/frmDetails.aspx?opt=misclinks&id=19
  6. http://202.83.164.29/mod/frmDetails.aspx?opt=misc&id=4
  7. Junaidi, Ikram (23 October 2015). "What is being built on GHQ land?". Dawn.
  8. "Military Land-Grab".
  9. http://202.83.164.29/mod/orgDetails.aspx
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