Tariq Majid

Tariq Majid (; born 23 August 1950) is a retired four-star rank army general in the Pakistan Army who served as the 13th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee from 2007 to 2010, the principal and highest-ranking military adviser in the Pakistan Armed Forces.

Prior to this promotion, he was the field operational commander of X Corps, stationed in Rawalpindi. His other commanding staff assignments include the Chief of General Staff (CGS) from 2003 to 2006 and Director General of the Military Intelligence (DGMI) from 2000 to 2003, all premier staff commands of the Pakistan Army. He was succeeded as chairman joint chiefs by another four-star rank general officer General Khalid Shameem Wynne.

Biography

Personal background Tariq Majid was born on 23 August 1950 in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. He was educated at Government Islamia College, Civil Lines, Lahore, and Government College, Lahore. Tariq Majid was admitted to the Pakistan Military Academy in Kakul, in 1967. He graduated with a Bachelor's degree from PMA in 1971 and commissioned in the Pakistan Army as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 28th Light anti-tank weapon Battalion of the Baloch Regiment of Pakistan Army in April 1971. After the war, he would later on served in the academic institutions of Pakistan military on deputation. On promotion to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in January 1988, he commanded the Infantry battalion in which he was originally commissioned; in 1991, he also commanded another Infantry battalion. In April 2001, he was appointed as director-general of Military Intelligence (DGMI) which he held until December 2003.

Chief of General Staff and Corps Commander

On 19 December 2003, Major-General Tariq Majid's promotion on three-star rank, Lieutenant-General, and appointed to the post of Chief of General Staff, in place of Lieutenant-General Shahid Aziz, who proceeded as the corps commander Lahore. The post of chief of general staff is important in a sense that it heads the important military bureaus of Military Intelligence (MI) and Military Operations. According to media reports, the warnings of DGMO and MI were bypassed by President Musharraf and issued "direct" orders to commander of X Corps Lieutenant-General Tariq Majid.

Soon, he gained significant publicity from this event, and was soon predicted by the media and the analysts to be promoted to the four-star assignments of either vice chief of army staff or chairman joint chiefs. These predictions were true, when in October 2007, he was made the Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee.

Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee

Upon General P. Musharraf's retirement from the army, Majid's appointment to four star rank was highly speculated in the media and military science circles. As early as in August and the following month, Majid was initially in the race to be appointed as chief of army staff.

On 3 October 2007, the media in Pakistan announced that Lieutenant-General Tariq Majid was promoted to four-star rank, and his nomination to succeed general Ehsan-ul-Haq was already approved by President Musharraf. During the armed escalations with India, Majid served as the top military adviser to government and it was widely circulated that he, together with chiefs of navy, army and air force, had advised the president Asif Ali Zardari to take back his statement made last month, that his country would not be the first to use nuclear weapons in the event of a conflict with India". Responding to the India's military movement at the India-Pakistan border in 2010, General Majid told the Pakistan's media representatives at the ISPR that "the Indian army knows the capacity of the Pakistan armed forces. Responding to the Indian Army's Chief of Staff's statement of Indian military preparations to fight China and Pakistan simultaneously, Majid told the journalists that "leave alone China, General Deepak Kapoor knows very well what the Indian Army cannot and Pakistan Armed Forces can pull off militarily.

As chairman joint chiefs, Majid notably terminated all military debriefings of senior scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan and recognized his services done to the country publicly on first week of November 2008. Earlier to this, Majid was known for welcoming dr. Qadeer Khan in the country's military science circles where Qadeer Khan was still welcomed. In 2010, while lecturing on nuclear weapons politics, Majid endorsed Qadeer Khan's services and stressed to the fact that: "Pakistan had to be mindful of a blatant pursuit of military preponderance in its eastern neighborhood". He presented the government a tri-services combat framework to tackle the joint combat operations against the extreme elements; a plan which was duly approved by Prime minister Gillani as part of his war strategy. In a secret conversation with American ambassador Anne W. Patterson General Majid added, "It got to the point where we are looking at our own contingencies."

In a speech at the National Defense University and Quaid-i-Azam University, Majid outlines that atomic deterrence against a possible aggression was a compulsion, and not a choice for Pakistan. Majid exhorted to the world delegation at the NDU that, "World must accept Pakistan as nuclear power." In military circles, he was well established and had a reputation as a "pragmatic general" and an "embodiment of professionalism thorough professional officer who sets and strives for high standards of excellence." (Saudi Arabia)2009|Turkish Legion of Merit(Turkey) 2010|The Legion of HonourOfficer Class (France)2010'''

Foreign decorations