That there has been Punjabi dominance in the Pakistan Army is common knowledge, but this has not necessarily been true about its leadership, with Pashtuns and Urdu-speaking Muhajirs having punched above their weight in leading the army
Punjabis are Pakistan’s largest ethnic group, accounting for over 50% of the population. It is also the single-largest demographic in Pakistan’s Army, long regarded as the country’s most powerful institution. The ethnic composition is rooted in British colonial recruitment policies after the 1857 revolt and the Partition in 1947. But the picture is more complex when it comes to the Pakistan Army’s highest office.
Punjabi dominance in the Pakistan Army is common knowledge, but this has not necessarily been true about its leadership. Pashtuns, who account for 16% of Pakistan’s population and are the second most dominant ethnic group within the army, and Urdu-speaking Muhajirs have punched above their weight in leading the army. Pakistan got its first Punjabi army chief, General Tikka Khan, in 1972, 25 years after the country’s creation. Six Punjabis have since headed the Pakistan Army for around 34 out of 75 years of Pakistan’s existence. Seven out of 16 army chiefs, or less than half, have been Punjabis, who account for 56% of the country’s population.
Only four of the 13 army chiefs until 2007 were Punjabis. Just one of the four military rulers, Zia-ul-Haq, was a Punjabi. Four army chiefs with combined tenures of 16 years have been Pashtuns. They include two of four military rulers – Field Marshal Ayub Khan and Punjab-born General Yahya Khan – who ruled Pakistan for 14 years. Zia, a Punjabi-speaking Muhajir from Jalandhar, was Pakistan’s third military ruler for 11 years in the 1970s and 1980s. Delhi-born Urdu-speaking Muhajir Pervez Musharraf ruled the country in uniform for nine years. Non-Punjabis helmed Pakistan for 25 out of 34 years of military rule.
How British Colonial Recruitment Policies Created Punjab’s Dominance in the Pakistan Army
Punjabi dominance in the Pakistan Army dates back to British colonialism. It began with the changes to the British Indian Army’s recruitment policies following the 1857 revolt, which has been described as ‘the largest and bloodiest anticolonial revolt against any European empire in the nineteenth century.’ As many as 7796 of 139000 British Indian troops revolted in 1857 and threatened to end British rule. The revolt led to a major shift in how India was governed. The power was transferred from the East India Company to the British Crown. The British also ended the policy of enlisting soldiers mainly from the so-called upper-caste Hindu communities of what are now India’s northern states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
Punjabi and Gurkha soldiers remained loyal to the British in 1857 and played a key role in recapturing Delhi. The British thereafter preferred soldiers from such so-called ‘martial races’ of Punjab and the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), now known as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. At least 29% of British Indian Army soldiers were Muslims, mostly from what is now Pakistan’s side of Punjab in 1939. The British preferred Punjabi Muslims as they were seen to be more loyal to them for ridding them of Sikh rule. North Indian Muslims, who were among the mainstays of the revolt, were perceived to be nostalgic towards Mughal rule and hence disloyal to the British, who succeeded the Mughals as India’s rulers.
Punjab accounted for fewer than 10% of British India’s population but provided over 50% of the recruits to the British Indian Army from 1857 to 1947. NWFP and much of Punjab in 1947 became part of Pakistan, which received one-third of the British Indian armed forces, by far the biggest share of resources it got. The areas that became Pakistan in 1947 accounted for 21% of British India’s population and 17% of its revenue base.
The higher proportion of Pashtuns in the Pakistan Army has also helped it repel Afghan claims over Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Afghan regimes, including that of the Taliban, have refused to accept the British-era Durand Line, which divides Pakistan and Afghanistan’s Pashtun areas. A bulk of about 30 million Pashtuns are Pakistanis and mostly live in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where separatism predated Bangladesh’s creation.
How Ethnic Imbalances in the Pakistan Army Contributed to Bangladesh’s Creation
The lopsided Bengali representation is believed to be among the reasons for exacerbating tensions between East and West Pakistan. Bengalis constituted less than one percent of the Pakistani army until its cessation and Bangladesh’s creation in 1971. The elevation of Ayub Khan, a Pashtun, as the first Pakistani head of the army in 1951 coincided with the rise of separatism for the creation of Pakhtunistan. He led the first military coup seven years later and ruled Pakistan for 11 years. Pashtuns acquired greater stakes in Pakistan during Ayub Khan’s rule and helped counter separatism in the country’s Pashtun belt.
The language riots in East Pakistan over the recognition of Urdu as the national language, on the other hand, in 1952 sowed the seeds of Bangladesh’s creation. The one-language formula underlined Urdu-speaking Muhajir influence during Pakistan’s infancy. The Urdu-speaking Muhajirs, who comprise six percent of the population, dominated bureaucracy and backed the idea of a unitary state with Urdu as the national language.
Two Urdu-speaking Muhajirs, Musharraf and Azamgarh-born General Mirza Aslam Beg, led the Pakistan Army for 12 years. Bangladesh’s creation hugely impacted the two, and they also tried to get even with India when they were at the helm. Beg is believed to have steered the insurrection in Kashmir in the late 1980s. Musharraf planned the 1990 Kargil War to internationalize the Kashmir dispute.
Why Sindhis and Baloch Remain Underrepresented in the Pakistan Army
General Muhammad Musa, a member of the minuscule Hazara community from Baluchistan, led the Pakistan army for eight years from 1958 to 1966. No Sindhi or Baluch has helmed it so far. Author Shuja Nawaz has cited internal documents to conclude that just 15% of soldiers in the Pakistan Army belong to Sindh and Baluchistan. Sindhis are Pakistan’s second-biggest ethnic group, accounting for 17% of the population, while Baluchs comprise three percent.
The British granted Punjabis land and settled them in Sindh in recognition of their military services. Soldiers from Sindh in the Pakistan Army may not necessarily be ethnic Sindhis. According to author Anatol Lieven, Punjabi settlers contribute a disproportionate number of recruits from Sindh. Pakistan has sought to encourage the so-called non-martial Sindhis and Baluchs to join the armed forces by lowering fitness and educational requirements for them.
According to Shuja Nawaz, a far smaller region of Kashmir under Pakistan’s control, adjoining Punjab’s Pothwar region, is a major recruiting ground, contributing six per cent of the recruits. A bulk of soldiers, or 65%, were drawn from Punjab, followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (15%). In Punjab, recruits are mainly drawn from Pothwar’s Jat, Rajput, Awan, Gakkar, and Gujjar communities, with at least three army chiefs, Asif Nawaz, Tikka Khan, and Raheel Sharif, being Rajputs from Punjab, highlighting that Punjabi dominance in the Pakistan Army is not also pan-Punjab.
