ABSTRACT
At partition, the Pakistan Army was in a lamentable state. It was short of everything in the way of men, defense stores, weapons, ammunition, and officers. It had one major general, two brigadiers, and fifty-three colonels. Of the six hundred officers required in the army corps of engineers, it had to do with just a hundred, most of whom were unqualified.1 Besides, not a single complete regiment could come to Pakistan. Though there were pure Sikh regiments and various all-Hindu regiments in the Indian Army, there was no such thing as an all-Muslim unit. After the War of Independence of 1857 (the mutiny, to the British), the British decided that, though they needed Muslim soldiery, they could not trust it enough to form independent all-Muslim units. Muslim elements had therefore to be scattered and mixed with others to dilute their strength.
