Cadet College Hasanabdal (CCH) is a residential

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

located in

Hasan Abdal Hasan Abdal ( Punjabi; ) is a city in the Attock District of Punjab Province in Pakistan. Located 40 km northwest of the country's capital city, Islamabad, Hassan Abdal is the headquarters of Hasan Abdal Tehsil (sub-district). As home of ...

Attock District Attock District ( Punjabi/Urdu), known as Campbellpur District during British Raj, is a district, located on the Pothohar Plateau, in north western Punjab, Pakistan; created in April 1904. According to 2023 Pakistani census population of Att ...

Punjab, Pakistan Punjab (, ) is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. With a population of over 127 million, it is the Demographics of Pakistan, most populous province in Pakistan and the List of first-level administrative divisions by popu ...

.Hugh Catchpole of Cadet College Hasan Abdal
The Friday Times (newspaper), Published 3 November 2017, Retrieved 9 November 2022 The college boards 600 male students (12 to 19 years old) and offers GCE 'O' Levels, A Levels from Cambridge, and HSSC (Pre-Medical & Pre-Engineering) from the Federal Board, Islamabad. Students appear in a nationwide competitive examination for the merit-based selection, including those from overseas.

History

Cadet College Hasanabdal is the first cadet college of the country. The idea of building a cadet college in

came directly from then Commander in Chief of the Pakistan Army— General Muhammad Ayub Khan—in 1952. The purpose was to establish a military feeding institution for the Services Academies. Consequently, military wings (were) started in 1952 at Government College Sahiwal (then known as Government College Montgomery) and Islamia College Peshawar. For the present structure, the land that used to be the firing range was provided by the

Pakistan Army The Pakistan Army (, ), commonly known as the Pak Army (), is the Land warfare, land service branch and the largest component of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The president of Pakistan is the Commander-in-chief, supreme commander of the army. The ...

, and funds were allocated by the Government of Punjab. The Chief Architect for Government of the Punjab, Habib J. A. Somjee, designed the structure of this institution that was completed in 1954 and the classes, at Pubjab Cadet College (the first name of CCH), commenced in the month of April as military wings from Sahiwal and Peshawar were combined at Hasan Abdal. This maiden institution needed a learned and experienced educationist to lead. It was none other than

Hugh Catchpole Hugh Catchpole CBE Hilal-i-Imtiaz, HI (26 May 1907 – 1 February 1997) was a British educationist and philanthropist, mostly active in British India, and later India and Pakistan. He was a teacher and administrator in military colleges and scho ...

—Ex-Principal of the Prince of Wales Royal Indian Military College (presently known a
Rashtriya Indian Military College) Dehradun, India
who was deemed fit and he joined CCH as the founding Principal. The name of the college was changed to Government Cadet College in 1957 and finally to Cadet College Hasanabdal in 1960 as the status of the military feeding institution was revoked.

Governing Body and Management Hierarchy

In 1960, the Government of the province of Punjab constituted a Board of Governors to exercise administrative control over the college vide Punjab Government Educational and Training Institutions Ordinance 1960. Presently, the college is having a well-established board which includes academicians, administrators, and intellectuals to chalk out a way forward for the college as per the needs of 21^st Century. The board consists of ex-officio and non-official members. The board consists of Chairman, the Governor of the province of Punjab, Vice Chairman, Chairman Pakistan Ordinance Factories Board whereas members include Commissioner Rawalpindi Division, Secretary Finance Department, Secretary School Education Department, Deputy Commissioner Attock and Principal Cadet College Hasanabdal. Under the board, various governing committees work to officiating the day-to-day affairs of the college. It includes, Executive Committee which is chaired by Chairman Pakistan Ordinance Factory and assisted by some prominent Abdalians whereas the Principal acts as the Secretary of the committee
Academics Committee
Finance and Resource Mobilization Committee, Infrastructure Development and Planning Committee, Sport Committee, an
Alumni Committee
These committees work as per the guidelines of th
Executive Committee
and th
Board of Governors

Wings

The college is divided into six wings: Jinnah, Haider, Iqbal, Omar, Liaqat, and Aurangzeb.

Student life

Students attending Cadet College, Hasan Abdal, are called cadets. The college prepares boys for the secondary school and intermediate examinations conducted by the Rawalpindi Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, and also for the

General Certificate of Education The General Certificate of Education (GCE) is a subject-specific family of academic qualifications used in examination board, awarding bodies in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Education in the Crown dependencies, Crown dependencies and a few ...

'O' Levels and 'A' Levels, which follow a similar format to the

GCSE The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a range of subjects taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, having been introduced in September 1986 and its first exams taken in 1988. State schools ...

s and 'A' levels used in the UK. Some cadets study for Matriculation or F.Sc. (both pre-medical and pre-engineering). English, Urdu, Islamiyat, Pakistan Studies, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology are compulsory at each level; some other subjects (e.g. Computer Science) are offered within the different levels. Fitness activities include

gymnastics Gymnastics is a group of sport that includes physical exercises requiring Balance (ability), balance, Strength training, strength, Flexibility (anatomy), flexibility, agility, Motor coordination, coordination, artistry and endurance. The movem ...

jogging Jogging is a form of trotting or running at a slow or leisurely pace. The main intention is to increase physical fitness with less stress on the body than from faster running but more than walking, or to maintain a steady speed for longer periods ...

, and athletics. Sports time is held in the evenings on weekdays. Cadets take part in sports such as

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

field hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

horse riding Equestrianism (from Latin , , , 'horseman', 'horse'), commonly known as horse riding ( Commonwealth English) or horseback riding (American English), includes the disciplines of riding, driving, and vaulting. This broad description includes the ...

, squash,

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

, and

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

. Students are also taught

drill A drill is a tool used for making round holes or driving fasteners. It is fitted with a drill bit for making holes, or a screwdriver bit for securing fasteners. Historically, they were powered by hand, and later mains power, but cordless b ...

. Classes are conducted in the morning and preps (individual silent study periods) at night. The routine is a structured daily regime to promote maximum performance by the students. CCH Schedule

Infrastructure

The college is spread over approximately . Buildings on the property include a

mosque A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were si ...

, a two-story education block, college hall—known as Naeem Hall in memory of ex-cadet Captain Naeem Akhtar (Shaheed)— the six boarding wings, two cadet

mess The mess (also called a mess deck aboard ships) is a designated area where military personnel socialize, eat and (in some cases) live. The term is also used to indicate the groups of military personnel who belong to separate messes, such as the o ...

es—known as Khatlani Hall and Hussain Shah Hall in memory respectively of ex-cadet Lt. Ahmed Farooq Khatlani (Shaheed) and ex-cadet Lt. Hussain Shah (Shaheed)— a swimming pool, a 16-bed hospital, the administrative block, a workshop and a hobbies block. Sports facilities include two squash courts and a number of football, hockey and cricket pitches, as well as a horse-back riding ground. The college has residential accommodation for the teaching and administrative staff based within the college. There is an oval ground in the middle of the college around which all the six wings are located. Recently, every wing has been given a slogan and a mascot. A road, "Scholar's Walk" as called by BOGs, surrounds the Oval. It is a cricket ground with flood lights installed around for playing cricket matches even at night.

Principals

Principals and their tenure start dates are:

Notable alumni

The following notable people are graduates of the college: * Sohaib Abbasi — former Senior Vice President of

Oracle An oracle is a person or thing considered to provide insight, wise counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. If done through occultic means, it is a form of divination. Descript ...

Tools and Education divisions, former CEO of

Informatica Informatica Inc. is an American software development company founded in 1993. It is headquartered in Redwood City, California. Its core products include enterprise cloud data management and data integration. It was co-founded by Gaurav Dhillon a ...

* Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi — former Chief of Naval Staff, Pakistan Navy * Asad Abidi — first dean of LUMS School of Science and Engineering, Professor of

Electrical Engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

and Cornell * Khawaja Asif —

Minister of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divid ...

, Pakistan * Masood Aslam — Commander XI Corps,

and former Inspector General Training & Evaluation (IG T&E) * Asfandyar Bukhari — Tamgha i Jurat recipient * Vice Admiral Tayyab Ali Dogar — former vice chief of naval staff * Muhammad Hafizullah — vice chancellor, Khyber Medical University,

Peshawar Peshawar is the capital and List of cities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by population, largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is the sixth most populous city of Pakistan, with a district p ...

* David Headley * Hamid Javaid — former chief of staff (COS) to the

president of Pakistan The president of Pakistan () is the head of state of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The president is the nominal head of the executive and the supreme commander of the Pakistan Armed Forces.

and former chairman HIT * Iftikhar Ali Khan — former Secretary Defence and ex- chief of the General Staff (CGS),

* Khurram Dastgir Khan — Defense Minister of Pakistan, previous minister of commerce * Rizwan Ullah Khan — Air Commodore of the

Pakistan Air Force The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) (; ) is the aerial warfare branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces, tasked primarily with the aerial defence of Pakistan, with a secondary role of providing air support to the Pakistan Army and Pakistan Navy when re ...

* Abbas Khattak — former chief of Air Staff,

* Raja Nadir Pervez — Sitara- e-Jurat and Bar * Javed Ashraf Qazi — former federal minister of education, communication and railways, secretary railways, commander XXX Corps, Gujranwala and DG ISI * Sikandar Sultan Raja — Federal Secretary to Govt of Pakistan * Tahawwur Hussain Rana * Babar Sattar — judge of the

Islamabad High Court The Islamabad High Court (IHC) is the senior court of the Islamabad Capital Territory, Pakistan, with appellate jurisdiction over the following District courts of Pakistan, district courts: * Islamabad District Court (East) * Islamabad Distr ...

* Khalid Shameem Wynne — former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee * Muhammad Zakaullah — former chief of naval staff,

Pakistan Navy The Pakistan Navy (PN) (; ''romanized'': Pākistān Bahrí'a; ) is the naval warfare branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The Chief of the Naval Staff, a four-star admiral, commands the navy and is a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Com ...

* Naweed Zaman — rector, National University of Sciences and Technology (Pakistan), ex-commandant, Army IV Corps

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Schools in Punjab, Pakistan H Boarding schools in Pakistan