Nigar Johar Becomes First Female Lieutenant General in Pakistan Army’s History

Major General Nigar Johar has become the first female army officer in the history of the country to be appointed as the Lieutenant General of Pakistan Army.

“The officer appoints as the first female Surgeon General of the army,” said a press release by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of Pakistan army.

Lieutenant General Johar hails from Panjpai, a small town in the backward district Swabi in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. She is currently serving as Commandant Military Hospital (CMH) in Rawalpindi.

In 2017, Nigar became the third woman officer in the history of Pakistan to reach the rank of Major General.

Lt Gen Johar belongs to the Army Medical Corps and is the niece of Major (R) Mohammad Aamir, a former Pakistan Army officer who served in the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

Lt Gen Johar Khan is now the first three-star general in the Pakistan Army. In 2015, she is a feature in a video release ISPR honoring women in the Pakistan armed forces.

In the video, she says: “Pakistan is my country and I was born here. I was raised here and I think there is no match to Pakistan to anywhere in the world.”

She completed her high school at the Convent Girls High School, Rawalpindi in 1978. She joined the Army Medical College in 1981 graduating in 1985.

Nigar is from the 5th MBBS course of Army Medical College and she has served as the female company commander of Ayesha Company at the same college.

In 2010 she completed the examination for membership of the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan.

In 2012, she completed her diploma in Advance Medical Administration through the Armed Forces Post Graduate Medical Institute and in 2015.

she has received a Master of Public Health degree from the same institute.

PML-N’s Ahsan Iqbal called the achievement a “leapfrog for Pakistani women, who are contributing in all areas of national development and security”.