The

Frontier Force Regiment The Frontier Force Regiment is one of the six infantry regiments of the Pakistan Army. They are popularly known as the ''Piffers'' in reference to their military history as the PIF (Punjab Irregular Force) of the British Indian Army, or as the ...

of 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 ...

consists of battalions with their own history. Most were formed after independence, but some are much older. They are known as Piffers in reference to the former Punjab Irregular Force (PIF) formed by the British in 1851. The PIF consisted of five regiments of cavalry, eleven regiments of infantry and five batteries of artillery besides the Corps of Guides. Their mission was to maintain order on the Punjab Frontier. Most of them were allotted to Pakistan at the time of the

independence Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state, in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the status of ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. Only the 5th Gorkha Rifles (Frontier Force), and the 2nd Derajat and 4th (Hazara) Mountain Batteries went to

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. The present Piffers include the

, seven armoured regiments and The First (SP) Medium Regiment Artillery of

Frontier Force Regiment Battalions

Since formation in 1956, the battalions have been known officially by their

ordinal number In set theory, an ordinal number, or ordinal, is a generalization of ordinal numerals (first, second, th, etc.) aimed to extend enumeration to infinite sets. A finite set can be enumerated by successively labeling each element with the leas ...

followed by the legend "FF". However, since many of the original fifteen battalions were from prior regiments, they were raised under different names, which are indicated. In some cases the battalion may be better known by the original name or nickname. 2 FF for instance is known better as "

Guides Infantry The Guides Infantry, or 2nd Battalion (Guides) The Frontier Force Regiment, is an infantry battalion of the Pakistan Army. It was raised in 1846 as part of the famous Corps of Guides (British India), Corps of Guides, a highly mobile force to a ...

" after the fact it was drawn from the infantry component of the Corps of Guides when that unit was disbanded. 11 FF was “1 Pathan” and members of 15 FF, still call their battalion, "2 Pathan" which was the designation the battalion had as a unit of the Pathan Regiment.

Affiliated units

These units are separate from but linked to the Frontier Force Regiment.

Frontier Force Regiment Battalions

Affiliated units

Footnotes

See also