National_Cadet_Corps_(Pakistan)

National Cadet Corps (Pakistan)

National Cadet Corps (Pakistan)

Pakistani paramilitary unit

The National Cadet Corps (NCC) was a college and school-based programme for providing military-style training to students in Pakistan, under the auspices of the Pakistan Army. It was a component of the National Guard (a reserve force of the Pakistan Army), and was similar to the British Officers' Training Corps and Army Cadet Force.

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History

The Government of Pakistan formed a committee to prepare the groundwork for establishing a National Cadet Corps in 1947.[2] The government confirmed an intention to raise the Corps in September 1950.[3] The aim was to organise college battalions composed of students, with college staff holding officer positions.[3] Initially it operated only in West Pakistan but by 1952 it was being considered for expansion to East Pakistan, and had formed junior and senior sections, although a women’s section was not formed.[4]

By 1960 the intention was for the Corps to have a strength of 20,000 members.[5] A 1960 commission on education, set up by the government, recommended creating an Army-controlled directorate to organise the Corps more effectively.[6] It also recommended separate sections men’s and women’s sections for each of the three military services.[7] Although the 1962 East Pakistan Annual indicated that funding had been made available for a Corps there,[8] it is unclear whether the proposed expansion to East Pakistan was implemented because a national budget for 1964 referred to the "West Pakistan National Cadet Corps Scheme".[9]

It was officially merged into the National Guard when that force was expanded in 1972 in response to the secession of East Pakistan as the independent country of Bangladesh in 1971.[10] The recruitment criteria in 1973 were for male college students and staff in good health, who would be subject to military law while they were part of the Corps.[11] The training included annual military-style camps and one of the benefits of successfully completing the training was preferential treatment for government jobs.[11] By 1977 the Corps was operational in most degree colleges in the country.[12]

The Corps was disbanded in 2002 by President Pervez Musharraf, although the government was reportedly considering restarting it in the aftermath of the 2014 Peshawar school massacre.[13] There were calls for the Corps to be restored at a federal level in 2015,[1] and at provincial level in 2019.[14]

See also

References

  1. [1]
    Abbasi, Kashif (12 March 2015). "Govt looking to reintroduce civil defence courses at college-level". Dawn.
  2. [2]
    Constituent Assembly of Pakistan (1947). Debates. Vol. 1. Government of Pakistan Press. p. 174. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  3. [3]
    Pakistan Affairs. Vol. IV. Information Division, Embassy of Pakistan, Washington, D.C. 29 September 1950. p. 8. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  4. [4]
    The Constituent Assembly (Legislature) of Pakistan Debates. Vol. I. Constituent Assembly of Pakistan. 1952. p. 56. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  5. [5]
    News from Hsinhua News Agency. Hsinhua News Agency. 1960. p. 128. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  6. [6]
    Pakistan Quarterly. Vol. 10. Pakistan Publications. 1960. p. 44. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  7. [7]
    Commission on National Education (1962). Government Resolution on the Report of the Commission on National Education. Government of Pakistan Press. p. 21. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  8. [8]
    East Pakistan Annual. Vol. 2. 1962. p. 61. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  9. [9]
    Details of Demands for Grants and Charged Expenditure. Superintendent, Government Print. 1964. p. 46. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  10. [10]
    National Guards program is lauched to reduce dependence on Army. Vol. XXVI. Washington. 16 January 1973. p. 94. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  11. [11]
    "National Guards Act, 1973. The Gazette of Pakistan" (PDF). Senate of Pakistan. 13 August 1973. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  12. [12]
    Bureau of Educational Planning and Management (1977). Development of Education in Pakistan. Ministry of Education, Government of Pakistan. p. 20. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  13. [13]
    Ali Usman (20 December 2014). "Terrorism threat: Govt mulls restarting NCC, civil defence training". The Express Tribune. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  14. [14]
    "PTI lawmaker seeks revival of NCC programme in colleges". The News International. 18 September 2019.
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