Qamar Javed Bajwa (born 11 November 1960) is a Pakistani four-star general who served as the tenth chief of the Army Staff of Pakistan from 29 November 2016 to 29 November 2022. In 2018, he was ranked 68th in the Forbes list of the World's Most Powerful People.
Originally from Gakhar Mandi, Gujranwala, Bajwa was born into a Punjabi Jat family of the Bajwa clan in Karachi. Bajwa was educated at F. G. Sir Syed College and Gordon College in Rawalpindi before joining the Pakistan Military Academy in 1978. Bajwa was commissioned in 1980 in the 16th Battalion of the Baloch Regiment. Before his appointment as the chief of army staff, he served at the General Headquarters as inspector general of training and evaluation from September 2015 to November 2016 and as field commander of the X Corps from August 2013 to September 2015, leading Pakistan's actions along the Line of Control in Kashmir. In addition, Bajwa served as a brigadier in the UN mission in Congo and as a brigade commander in 2007.
During Bajwa's tenure, military interference in Pakistan's political apparatus increased, with the army assisting in the removals of prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan: critics argued this resulted in economic stagnation. Bajwa was accused of corruption after a November 2022 leak of tax details revealed his family amassed over in wealth between 2016 and 2022.
Early life and education Born in Karachi, Sindh, on 11 November 1960, Bajwa was educated at the F. G. Sir Syed College and Gordon College in Rawalpindi before joining the Pakistan Military Academy in 1978. His family hails from Ghakhar Mandi, Punjab. His father Muhammad Iqbal Bajwa was an officer of Pakistan Army who died while in service in 1967 in Quetta, Balochistan, Pakistan. Bajwa was seven years old when his father died and he was the youngest of five siblings. He and his siblings were raised by their mother, who died in September 2013.
Bajwa completed his secondary and intermediate education at F. G. Sir Syed College and Gordon College in Rawalpindi before joining the Pakistan Army in 1978, which directed him to attend the military academy. He was sent to attend the Pakistan Military Academy in Kakul and passing out in 1980.
Bajwa is a graduate of the Canadian Army Command and Staff College and the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, United States. He also attended the National Defence University, Islamabad.
Military career After joining the Pakistan Army in 1978, Bajwa was enrolled at the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA) in Kakul, passed out with the class of 62nd PMA Long Course and gained commission as a second lieutenant, on 24 October 1980 in the 16th Baloch Regiment at the Sialkot Cantonment. His father commanded the same unit.
In 1988, Bajwa briefly served in the 5th Northern Light Infantry in Azad Kashmir. In addition, he served in the X Corps in Rawalpindi as a staff officer (GSO-1 Operations). Upon promotion as a one-star rank army general, Bajwa served as the chief of staff (COS) at the X Corps.
In 2003, Bajwa commanded the Pakistan Armed Forces-Africa Command, attached to the UN peacekeeping mission MONUSCO, in D. R. Congo. Bajwa served in the D. R. Congo as a brigade commander under the then-major general Bikram Singh, the former chief of the army staff of the Indian Army from 2012 to 2014. Singh later termed Bajwa's performance there as "professional and outstanding."
After being promoted to two star general rank in May 2009, Bajwa took over the command of the Force Command Northern Areas division as its general officer commanding (GOC), stationed in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan.
In August 2011, he was honored with the Hilal-i-Imtiaz (Military), and was posted as the Commadant of the School of Infantry and Tactics, Quetta, and has also served as an Instructor (DS) in the staff course at Command and Staff College in Quetta, and at the National Defence University, Islamabad.
On 14 August 2013, Bajwa was promoted to three-star rank and posted as field commander of the X Corps, stationed in Rawalpindi. The appointment was commented on by news media that noted Bajwa had been posted three times to X Corps, which is the army's most important and largest corps and has experience of keeping control over the insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir.
In 2014, Bajwa was appointed as colonel commandant of the Baloch Regiment.
On 22 September 2015, Bajwa was posted to the General Headquarters when he was appointed as the Inspector-General of Training and Evaluation (IGT&E). There he was a principal staff officer to the then-chief of army staff Raheel Sharif.
Chief of Army Staff In 2016, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Raheel Sharif dismissed rumours he was seeking an extension of his term. Initially, the race for the appointment for the COAS was rumoured as between Zubair Hayat and Javed Ramday, who was close to the Sharif family. However, prime minister Nawaz Sharif announced the appointment of Hayat, the-then senior most army general, as the Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee.
On 29 November 2016, Sharif announced the appointment of Bajwa - the fourth by seniority, as the COAS, superseding two generals who were senior to him. According to Pakistani media, his "strong pro-democracy stance and views" may have influenced his appointment as the army chief. Reuters reported that Sharif picked Bajwa because of his low-key style, however in 2024, Sharif's Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, said that Bajwa was appointed to the role on the assurance of retired Maj-Gen Ijaz Amjad, Bajwa's father-in-law. At the time Sharif was facing the Panama Papers case and had "soured" ties with the Military Establishment. Journalist Zahid Hussain wrote, "it was apparent that merit and seniority did not matter in the appointment of the army chief". Bajwa was also noted as being the fourth oldest COAS.
In December 2016, he was awarded the Nishan-e-Imtiaz.
In December 2016, just within weeks into office as COAS, General Bajwa initiated major reshuffle and appointments within military, consolidating a strong team which continued to assist him in his prolonged tenure of six years. The team included removal of notable generals like DG ISI Rizwan Akhtar, Commander X Corps Malik Zafar Iqbal. Bajwa appointed his close confidants like Naveed Muktar as DG ISI, Bilal Akbar as CGS, Nadeem Raza as X CorpsCOAS Bajwa, appointed new two-star major-generals, this included Asif Ghafoor as DG ISPR, Asim Munir DG MI, Sahir Shamshad Mirza as DG-Military Operations, and Faiz Hameed as DG Counter-Intelligence ISI. The generals continued to serve under General Bajwa for six years helping him to strengthen his role in political and non-political domains of the military. The role of General Faiz Hameed under Bajwa's tenure was particularly subjected to several controversies in country's political history. DG-C Faiz Hameed played a vital role in the ouster of then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and subsequent election rigging of 2018 Elections, which in turn helped in the installation of the military's favourite Imran Khan as the country's Prime Minister.
Under the command of Bajwa, nationwide counter-terrorism operations 'Radd-ul-Fasaad' launched in February 2017, and 'Khyber-4' in July 2017.
In 2018 he was ranked 68th in the Forbes list of the World's Most Powerful People, compiled by Forbes magazine, which called him de facto the most powerful person in Pakistan who "established himself as a mediator and proponent of democracy".
On 25 July 2018, general elections were held in Pakistan. They have been branded as the dirtiest elections in Pakistan's history with the army under Bajwa being accused of manipulating the elections and engineering a victory for the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party of Imran Khan over the army's challenger, the Pakistan Muslim League (N).
Khan said at the very outset of becoming prime minister that he had decided that Bajwa would be offered an extension to his term as army chief. According to Mohammed Hanif, Bajwa "was instrumental in bringing and sustaining him [Imran] in power". Khan added that he had not seen anyone else to be as balanced and democratic in nature as Bajwa. After Khan's ouster in 2022 which was orchestrated at the behest of Bajwa, Khan stated in a 2024 interview with Mehdi Hasan that his only regret was trusting Bajwa, who he held responsible for "creating lies and false narratives", allegedly to secure a second extension.
In October 2018, Bajwa was awarded Jordan's Order of Military Merit by King Abdullah II.
On 19 August 2019, his tenure as army chief was extended for another three years, starting from November 2019 until November 2022, by prime minister Imran Khan. However, on 26 November 2019, the Supreme Court of Pakistan suspended the three-year extension. On 28 November 2019, the Supreme Court of Pakistan announced a short order allowing a 6-month extension in Bajwa's term as the Chief of Army Staff, during which the parliament was to legislate on the extension/reappointment of an army chief. On 8 January 2020, the Senate of Pakistan passed the Pakistan Army (Amendment) Bill 2020, allowing for Bajwa's tenure extension up to three years until 29 November 2022.
In April 2022, Bajwa publicly suggested at a security forum in Islamabad that Pakistan had been pushed into dependence on China. After a terrorist attack on Chinese nationals in Karachi in April 2022, Chinese Army general Zhang Youxia asked Bajwa to stop attacks on Chinese nationals, Bajwa vowed to enhance counter-terror cooperation with China.
Controversies
Political interventions
Ouster of Nawaz Sharif as Prime Minister The former prime minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif alleged that Bajwa was behind his disqualification from the prime minister's office by putting pressure on the judiciary and the Supreme Court. He also alleged that Bajwa was also involved in rigging the general election. Subsequently, Muhammad Safdar Awan, son-in-law of Nawaz Sharif was arrested allegedly through pressure in the aftermath of enforced disappearance of Sindh Police's provincial senior police officer Mushtaq Mahar. According to Shehbaz Sharif, in 2018 General Bajwa, DG-ISI Naveed Mukhtar and DGCI Faiz Hameed offered him Prime-ministership in return for abandoning Nawaz Sharif. Zahid Hussain in his Dawn opinion column of 21 August 2024, stated that in 2016 when a journalist in a press briefing held by Bajwa asked him what would happen if the Prime Minister was removed, Bajwa responded; "Nothing will happen," adding "Nothing happened even when we hanged Bhutto."
Ouster of Imran Khan as Prime Minister
Following Imran Khan's ouster as Prime Minister, supporters of Khan's party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf called for Bajwa's resignation as army chief on Twitter, and Twitter trends denouncing the general as a "traitor" reached over a million tweets. The supporters claimed that Bajwa conspired to remove Khan from office along with the country's opposition parties. Rana Sanaullah claimed that the Pakistan Muslim League (N) (PML-N) was promised governments in federation and provinces as well as the removal of Imran Khan in exchange for vote for Bajwa's extension.
2018 Election rigging allegations