"The Moving Spirit"
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, website Pakistan Army − Engineers , commander1 = Lieutenant General Moazzam Ijaz
, commander1_label = Colonel Commandant
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, commander3 = Lieutenant General Moazzam Ijaz
, commander3_label = Engineer-in-Chief
, commander4 = General Mansoor Ali
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, notable_commanders = Lt Gen M. Anwar Khan Lt Gen Zahid Ali Akbar Lt Gen
Javed Nasir
Lieutenant-General Javed Nasir ( Urdu: جاويد ناصر; born 1936) ), is a Pakistani retired engineering officer who served as the Director-General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), appointed on 14 March 1992 until 13 May 1993.
Known ...
Gen
Ziauddin Butt
General Khawaja Ziauddin Abbasi ( ur, خواجہ ضیاء الدین عباسى), also known as Ziauddin Butt ( ur, ضیاء الدین بٹ), is a retired four-star rank army generalChaudhry, Aminullah (2009) Hijacking from the Ground: The Bi ...
Lt Gen Sajjad Ghani Lt Gen Shahid Niaz
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The Pakistan Army Corps of Engineers, (
Urdu
Urdu (;"Urdu" '' Pakistan Army. Although the Corps is generally associated with
dams
A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use ...
,
canals
Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow un ...
and
flood protection
Flood control methods are used to reduce or prevent the detrimental effects of flood waters."Flood Control", MSN Encarta, 2008 (see below: Further reading). Flood relief methods are used to reduce the effects of flood waters or high water levels ...
, it performs variety of
public works
Public works are a broad category of infrastructure projects, financed and constructed by the government, for recreational, employment, and health and safety uses in the greater community. They include public buildings ( municipal buildings, sc ...
for the
Government of Pakistan
The Government of Pakistan ( ur, , translit=hakúmat-e pákistán) abbreviated as GoP, is a federal government established by the Constitution of Pakistan as a constituted governing authority of the four provinces, two autonomous territorie ...
, only if it is ordered by the
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...
Topographer
Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps.
Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sc ...
, and consults and guides the Chief of Army Staff in matters of science and technology. The current Engineer-in-Chief and current commander of the Corps of Engineers is Lieutenant General Moazzam Ijaz.
History
Initially part of the
Indian Army Corps of Engineers
The Indian Army Corps of Engineers is a combat support arm which provides combat engineering support, develops infrastructure for armed forces and other defence organisations and maintains connectivity along the borders, besides helping the civil ...
which dates back to 1780, the Corps of Engineers came in its own on 14 August 1947, following the birth of Pakistan. At that time, the organisation was named "The Royal Pakistan Engineers", which remained so till March 1956, when Pakistan become a Republic, and its name changed to the "Corps of Engineers".
The partition of British India, led to a share of the British Indian Army units being allotted to Pakistan; amongst these were 34 Engineer units and subunits. The field units were from the
Bengal
Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...
and
Bombay
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-m ...
groups, roughly two-thirds of the former, and one-third of the latter. The units transferred from the Bengal Group were H.Q. 622 Corps Engineer Group, with 31 Assault Field Company, 33 Parachute Field Squadron, along with 2, 4, 5, 68, 70 and 71 Field Companies, 43 and 322 Field Park Companies and a number of E. & M., Railway and other specialist units. From the Bombay Group, Pakistan received Headquarters 474 Army Engrs, 17 91 and 98 Field Companies, 42 Field Park Company, a troop of 411 Para Field Squadron ex Karachi, and 489 Independent Stores Platoon.
The Corps took active military participation in the
1965 war
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 or the Second Kashmir War was a culmination of skirmishes that took place between April 1965 and September 1965 between Pakistan and India. The conflict began following Pakistan's Operation Gibraltar, which was d ...
Karakoram Highway
The Karakoram Highway ( ur, , translit=śāhirāh qarāquram; known by its initials KKH, also known as N-35 or National Highway 35 ( ur, ) or the China-Pakistan Friendship Highway) is a national highway which extends from Hasan Abdal in ...
, at that time, one of its largest project that connects China and
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
Khunjerab Pass
Khunjerab Pass (; ; ug, قونجىراپ ئېغىزى) is a mountain pass in the Karakoram Mountains, in a strategic position on the northern border of Pakistan (Gilgit–Baltistan's Hunza and Nagar Districts) and on the southwest border of Ch ...
, at an altitude of as confirmed by both SRTM and multiple
GPS
The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...
readings.
During the Kashmir earthquake of 2005, the Corps initiated the massive and one of the largest rehabilitation and reconstruction operations in Corps history, rebuilding and redesigning the entire cities of Gilgit and
Muzaffarabad
Muzaffarabad (; ur, ) is the capital and largest city of Azad Kashmir, and the 60th largest in Pakistan.
The city is located in Muzaffarabad District, near the confluence of the Jhelum and Neelum rivers. The district is bounded by the Pak ...
as well as Azad Kashmir. Its speedy rehabilitation operation was completed in record time and the entire city was rebuilt in 2008. As more recently, the Corps undertook the intensive rehabilitation and reconstruction operations in
deluge
A deluge is a large downpour of rain, often a flood.
The Deluge refers to the flood narrative in the Biblical book of Genesis.
Deluge may also refer to:
History
*Deluge (history), the Swedish and Russian invasion of the Polish-Lithuanian Com ...
in southern parts as well as recent earthquake in Western parts.
Since its inception, the Corps has built extensive military and civilian infrastructure of Pakistan Armed Forces as well as Pakistan Government, ranging from building bridges, dams, military regional headquarters and civil corporate architectural buildings. The Corps mission has been extended with time passes, and is renowned to have designed, construct, and built the GHQ, ammunition plants, army cantonments, as well as
Kahuta Project
Project-706, also known as Project-786 was the codename of a research and development program to develop Pakistan's first nuclear weapons. The program was initiated by Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1974 in response to the Indian nuclear ...