Jehangir Karamat

General Jehangir Karamat NI(M) HI(M) TBt (Urdu: جہانگیر کرامت ; born 20 February 1941) is a retired four-star rank military officer, diplomat, public intellectual, and a former professor of political science at the National Defense University. Prior to serving as a Chief of Army Staff, he also served as the 9th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee from 1997 to 1998.

Jahangir Karamat
جہانگیر کرامت
NI(M) HI(M) TBt
6th Chief of Army Staff
In office
12 January 1996  6 October 1998
President
Prime Minister
Preceded byAbdul Waheed Kakar
Succeeded byPervez Musharraf
9th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee
In office
9 November 1997  7 October 1998
Preceded byACM Farooq Feroze Khan
Succeeded byGen. Pervez Musharraf
Pakistani Ambassador to the United States
In office
17 November 2004  3 June 2006
PresidentPervez Musharraf
Prime MinisterShaukat Aziz
Preceded byAshraf Qazi
Succeeded byMahmud Ali Durrani
Personal details
Born (1941-02-20) 20 February 1941
Karachi, Sind, British India
NationalityPakistani
Alma mater
  • Pakistan Military Academy
  • Command and Staff College
  • Command and General Staff College
  • National Defence University
Institutions
  • National Defence University (NDU)
  • Armed Forces War College (afwc)
Field(s)Political science
Notable students
Notable work(s)Work in civil-military relations and Decentralization
Military service
Branch/service Pakistan Army
Years of service1958–1998
RankGeneral
Unit13th Lancers, Armoured Corps, PA-6399
Commands
Battles/wars
Awards
  • Nishan-e-Imtiaz (Military)
  • Hilal-e-Imtiaz (Military)
  • Tamgha-e-Basalat
  • Order of King AbdulAziz
  • Order of Military Merit
  • Turkish Legion of Merit
  • The Legion of Merit
  • Sword of Honour

After joining the Pakistan Army in 1958, he entered in the Pakistan Military Academy at Kakul, and passed out in 1961 to later serve in the combat in conflicts with India in 1965 and in 1971. In 1995, he came into national prominence after he notably exposed the attempted coup d'état against Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, and eventually appointed as an army chief and later Chairman joint chiefs. His tenure is regarded as his pivotal role in enhancing the democracy and the civilian control when he staunchly backed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's authorisation of atomic-testing programme in 1998.

On 6 October 1998, Karamat was forcibly relieved from his four-star commands by Prime minister Nawaz Sharif over a disagreement on national security and reforms of the intelligence community. He is also one of very few army generals in the military history of Pakistan to have resigned over a disagreement with the civilian authorities.

After his resignation, he accepted the professorship at the Stanford University in California and appointed as to head Pakistan's diplomatic mission as an Ambassador but was later removed due to strong advocacy for democracy.

Karamat has been credited for foresight prediction of the dangers of unbalanced civil-military relations and the rise of foreign-supported homegrown terrorism in the country. Many of his recommendations on national security eventually became part of counterterrorism policy by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 2013.

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