Nigar Johar becomes Pakistan Army’s first female Lieutenant General

Lieutenant. General Nigar Johar is a three-star general in the Pakistan Army. She is the first and only woman in the history of the Pakistan Army to reach the rank of Lieutenant General. In 2017 she was appointed as the third woman to reach the rank of Major General in the history of Pakistan.
She belongs to the Pakistan Army Medical Corps and is currently serving as Surgeon General of the Pakistan Army. The other two women, Major General, Shahida Badshah, and Shahida Malik, also belong to the Army Medical Corps.
Major General Babar Iftikhar, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) director said that Nigar has also been appointed as the first female Surgeon General of the Pakistan Army.
In 2015, she was featured in an (ISPR) video honoring women in the Pakistan Armed Forces. At that time she was serving as the deputy commandant of the Combined Military Hospital in Rawalpindi. She said in this video that Pakistan is my country and I was born here.
I have been brought up here and in my opinion, Pakistan has no match anywhere in the world. Among all the Muslim countries, all the developing countries it is the only country which has had female general officers. “No one else,”

Background

Nigar was born in Panjpir village located in the Swabi district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. She belongs to a Pashtun family. Her father was an army colonel who served in the Inter-Services intelligence. Her parents died in a car accident in 1990. Her uncle is a retired major who also served to the Inter services intelligence.

Education

She got her early education from the Presentation Convent Girls High School, Rawalpindi in 1978. After this, she joined the Army Medical college in 1981. She graduated in 1985. She is from the 5th MBBS course of the Army Medical College. Then she served as a female company commander in the same college. In 2012, she passed the examination for membership of the college of physicians and surgeons Pakistan. In the same year, she completed her diploma in Advance Medical Administration through the Armed forces post-Graduate Medical Institute. In 2015 she received a master of Public Health degree from the same institute.

Military Career

Nigar johar was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General on 30th June 2020. She has been appointed as surgeon general of the Pakistan army. In 2015, she served as the deputy commandant of combined military hospital Rawalpindi. On 9 Feb 2017, she was among the 37 brigadiers who were promoted to the rank of major general. Her promotion’s approval was given at an army selection board meeting that was presided over by army chief General Qamar Javaid Bajwa. She was vice-principal of army medical college. Now she is a surgeon general of Pakistan army. She was also the commandant of Pak emirates military hospital Rawalpindi.

PMLN leader, Shahbaz Sharif congratulates the officer on her promotion by saying that this gives a powerful message to our girls and young women “to desire the impossible in life”.

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