Qamar Javed Bajwa

Some Lesser Known Facts About Qamar Javed Bajwa

• Bajwa underwent training at the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA) in Kakul from 1978 to 1980. He was 18 when he joined the academy.

• He attended the 62 Long Course in the PMA.

  

• Bajwa completed his training on 24 October 1980 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 16 Baloch Regiment. The same unit in which his father served and later commanded.

• Thereafter, he was deployed in Sialkot, where he gave his service for some years.

• After becoming a major, Bajwa was sent to Kashmir, where he was deployed along the Line of Control.

  

• He began gathering information about the Indian Army and its strategies while serving with the 5th Battalion of the Northern Light Infantry (NLI). He got posted to NLI in 1992.

• Thereafter, he took part in numerous military conferences and debates, where he explained extensively about the Indian military.

• As a major, Bajwa has served as a Staff Officer (SO) in the X Corps, which is situated in Rawalpindi.

• He served as a General Staff Officer (GSO) in the X Corps following his promotion to the rank of lieutenant colonel.

• After he became a colonel, he commanded a Baloch Regiment’s unit.

• At the School of Infantry and Tactics in Quetta, Balochistan, Bajwa has held the post of an instructor.

• Bajwa served in Africa under the United Nations in 2003.

  

• Thereafter, he was appointed the commander of the Pakistan Armed Forces-Africa Command in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

• Bajwa served in the School of Infantry and Tactics in Quetta as its commandant following his promotion to brigadier.

• In 2007, Bajwa commanded a UN peacekeeping mission in Congo under General Bikram Singh. Singh praised his “professional and outstanding” performance. He said,
  

  In the UN operations, Gen Bajwa’s performance was totally professional and outstanding. A military officer’s conduct in the international environment is different from the way he conducts himself back home. There, he is governed by his country’s national interests.”

  

• He served in the Islamabad-based National Defence University (NDU) as an instructor after his promotion to major general.

• The X Corps, under his command, clashed with India in 2013 and 2014, resulting in significant damage to infrastructure and loss of lives.

  

• He has a lot of experience in handling Kashmir affairs and considers religious extremism a bigger threat to Pakistan’s national security than India.

• General Bajwa took over the command of the Pakistan Army from General Raheel Sharif in 2016.

• Many were unhappy with his appointment as the COAS because they believed him to be from the Ahmadiyya sect. This sect is not allowed to hold the post of a military chief in Pakistan.

• He was made Army Chief for being a non-political military man who favoured democracy and was proficient in managing civil-military relations.

• It is claimed that Bajwa devised Operations Radd-ul-Fasaad and Khyber-4 in 2017 after two terrorist attacks in Pakistan that claimed the lives of many people and soldiers.

  

• Reportedly, Bajwa had a collage of photos of the school kids who died during the 2014 APS Peshawar terror attack to remind himself to work towards eliminating extremism in the country.

• Bajwa has travelled to many countries on invitation to address conferences and give speeches. Some of these countries are the US, the UK, Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Turkey.

  

• Despite the strained relations between the US and Pakistan, General Bajwa maintained close military relations with the US government.

  

• After becoming the chief, he met Ashraf Ghani, the President of Afghanistan, to felicitate the building of a fence along the Durand Line, which is the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

  

• In 2017, despite facing threats from terrorist groups due to his leadership in anti-terrorism operations, General Bajwa dined at a restaurant without security.

• In February 2018, General Bajwa spoke at the Munich Security Conference. He discussed tackling threats from the Trump administration and emphasized creating a stable democracy to combat terrorism, improve law and order, uplift Afghanistan, and reintegrate surrendered extremists into society.

  

• Later, the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London named Bajwa’s speech in Munich as the Bajwa Doctrine.

• Bajwa visited China in the same year to discuss the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project and ensure no obstruction due to extremism and political turmoil in Pakistan.

  

• In the Forbes 2018 list of the Most Powerful People in the World, Bajwa was placed in the 68th position. ^[21]Forbes

• Qamar Bajwa received a three-year extension to his tenure as COAS in 2019, granted by the government under Imran Khan due to a “National Emergency.”

• The Supreme Court, however, halted the government’s order later and asked the parliament to pass Bajwa’s extension through a bill in the legislature.

  

• The Bajwa Doctrine 2.0, introduced in 2021, focuses on 4 major areas – lasting peace, non-interference in neighbouring countries, intra-regional trade and connectivity, and sustainable development through investment and economic hubs.

• In 2021, the son of a retired Pakistan Army major general wrote a letter criticizing General Bajwa’s request to extend Imran’s COAS tenure. This led to a court of inquiry being started against him.

• At a military conference in Rawalpindi in 2022, Bajwa blamed Pakistan’s political leaders for the 1971 war loss with India and criticized the civilian government’s role in the country’s economic decline. ^[22]The Siasat Daily

• General Bajwa handed over the command of the Pakistan Army to General Asim Munir in November 2022.

  

• Bajwa faced criticism from many. In the book “Dying to Serve: Militarism, Affect, and the Politics of Sacrifice in the Pakistan Army,” Maria Rashid wrote that Bajwa failed to unite the military by addressing the internal rifts, causing a decline in the army’s image. She wrote,
  

  General Bajwa miscalculated and underestimated the cracks within his own establishment. He acted too late and also perhaps does not seem to have the stomach to ‘quash’ the rebellion within. For the first time perhaps, the cracks within the military, even though they existed before, are being filtered through the concerns of a mainstream political party, the PTI.”

  Some sources claim that extremism in the country grew even after the army led by Bajwa launched numerous anti-terror operations.

• Saad claimed in an interview that Bajwa began following the hobby of reading after joining the army. Europe’s contemporary history is his favourite subject to read.

• Bajwa used to play as a wicketkeeper when he was in school.

• Bajwa’s children used to fly on a private jet from the UK to Pakistan while they were studying. This was when Bajwa held the rank of Major General.

• In 2023, a video showed up online where a man from Afghanistan was yelling at Qamar Javed Bajwa and his wife while they were on a holiday in France.

• In the same year, General Qamar Bajwa said in an interview that General Raheel Sharif wanted to stay as army chief for three more years to stop Bajwa from taking over the position. ^[23]Outlook

• According to sources, Bajwa once asked some important journalists, who were friends with Imran Khan, to convince him to do what the Pakistan Army wanted.

• General Qamar Javed Bajwa has a lot of plots and land in Pakistan. He has a 600-yard plot in Lahore, a 1 kanal plot in Rawalpindi, another 2 kanal plot in Lahore, and a 1 marla plot in Lahore.