One of the inevitable results of war is that military men get promotions and awards. These rewards are not the primary motive for courage, coolness and professional excellence, but they do serve as a recognition by a grateful nation of these qualities. Pakistan duly awarded the Hilal-i-Jurat to the Chief of Army Staff and the Chief of Air Staff, the former already having been promoted to Field Marshal and the latter having been given an extension in service. The Nishan-i-Imtiaz awarded to Chief of Naval Staff Bilal Ashraf reflected the relatively lower profile of the Pakistan Navy in the recent conflict. The Nishan was also awarded to Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Gen Shamshad Mirza, as well to a number of civilian leaders. It is also worth noting that India made a number of gallantry awards to its own servicemen. This would only have been possible by falsifying citations. It is not necessary that gallantry awards be earned in victory (three of Pakistan’s own Nishan-i-Haiders were won in 1971, even though that war did not end well for Pakistan), but the Indian Awards do not mesh with the result of the war. It should also be noted that the awards given by Pakistan reflect a decision by Pakistan that the conflict be recorded as a war.
Just before the awards ceremony, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif inaugurated the Army Rocket Force Command. This reflects the separation by the US Army of its rocket forces into a separate command. The USSR went so far as to create a separate service, the Strategic Rocket Forces. It should be noted that Pakistan has so far not moved to create a nuclear triad, as the USA did, with both the air force maintaining nuclear bombers aloft at all times, equipped with air-launched ballistic missiles, and the navy maintaining nuclear submarines at sea maintaining second-strike capability with sea-launched missiles. While both the PAF and the Navy are technically capable of delivering nuclear payloads, there are apparently no such plans at the moment. The new command has probably hived off from the artillery, from which the Air Defence Command was earlier hived off as a branch of service. It is worth noting that that the Air Defence Command had been set up because of the use of equipment meant for Air Defence of nuclear installations, which means that this is the second arm of service established for the nuclear age.
