Jehangir Karamat

Infobox Military Person


|name= Jehangir Karamat
lived=
placeofbirth=
placeofdeath=


caption= General Jehangir Karamat as the Ambassador of Pakistan to United States
nickname=
allegiance= flagicon|PAK Pakistan
branch=Pakistan Army
serviceyears= 1961 - 1998
rank= General
current position=
commands= DG Military Operations (DGMO)
X Corps (Rawalpindi)
Chief of General Staff (CGS)
Chief of Army Staff
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
unit= Armoured Corps
battles=Indo-Pakistani War of 1965
Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
awards=
laterwork=

General (retd) Jehangir Karamat (Urdu: جہانگیر کرامت) is the former Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army from January 1996 to October 1998 and a former Pakistan Ambassador to the United States from November 2004 to June 2006. He is also one of very few Army chiefs to have resigned over a disagreement with the civilian authorities.

Military career

General Karamat joined Pakistan Army in the 13th Lancers cavalry division of the Armoured Corps in the 24th PMA Long Course in 1961. He then served in the Indo-Pakistan Wars of 1965 and 1971. He is a graduate of the National Defence College, the Command and Staff College, Quetta, and the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He has a Masters degree in International Relations.

During his career, General Karamat's assignments have included being Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) and Chief of General Staff (CGS). He also served in Saudi Arabia from 1985 to 1988 as the Commander of the Independent Armored Brigade Group

Army chief

Karamat was appointed the Army Chief by the then President Farooq Leghari on 18 December, 1995 when previous chief General Wahid Kakar's three-year term was near expiration. He was set to take over when Kakar was due to retire on 12 January, 1996. He was the senior most general at that time, and therefore at promotion to four star general, he superseded no one. [Ihtashamul Haque. [http://www.lib.virginia.edu/area-studies/SouthAsia/SAserials/Dawn/1995/21Dc95.html#kara "Karamat named COAS"] "Daily Dawn", 12 December, 1995] Karamat was then given the additional post of chairmanship of Joint Chiefs of Staff in November 1997 by the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif when the previous chairman Air Chief Marshal Farooq Feroze Khan's three-year term ended. However, Karamat was forced to resign by Sharif when he criticized Pakistan’s political leadership and advocated a national security council that would give the military a constitutional role in running the country, similar to Turkey's. [Owen Bennett-Jones. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/189233.stm 'Analysis: Resignation shifts balance of power'] "BBC News", October 8, 1998] He retired as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and as Chief of Army Staff in October 1998.

Academic career

After his retirement, General Karamat became a visiting fellow at CISAC Stanford University, and the Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C. He was also part of a U.N.-sponsored study on Afghanistan, and was Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Islamabad Policy Research Institute. He has stayed as the Colonel Commandant and Colonel-in-Chief, both ceremonial posts, of the Pakistan Armored Corps. He also stayed as the President of the Pakistan Polo Association.

Ambassador to the United States

General Karamat's name was first mentioned as a replacement for Ambassador Ashraf Jehangir Qazi around the end of September 2004, when Mr Qazi was appointed by Kofi Annan, the Secretary General of the United Nations, to be his Special Representative to Iraq.

On 23 March, 2006, Pakistani media reported that Ambassador Karamat was to be replaced by retired Major General Mahmud Ali Durrani. The reports further stated that it was not clear why Ambassador Karamat, who took his post on a two-year contract, would be returning home after only a year and a half. [Khalid Hasan. [http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006%5C03%5C23%5Cstory_23-3-2006_pg7_4 'Durrani in, Karamat out'] "Daily Times", March 23, 2006]

Founding think tank

After ambassadorship, General Jehangir Karamat founded a socio-political policy and analysis institute, "Spearhead Research", which focuses on social, economic, military and political issues concerning Pakistan and Afghanistan. General Jehangir Karamat is the director and contributor to the Spearhead Research Institute.

References

External links

* [http://www.brookings.edu/media/NewsReleases/2000/20000505karamat.aspx Brookings Institution Profile]
* [http://www.pakistanlink.com/Community/2004/oct04/01/05.html PakistanLink: General Karamat: An Introduction]
* [http://www.embassyofpakistan.org/ Embassy of Pakistan, Washington DC]
* [http://www.spearheadresearch.org Spearhead Research]

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