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After independence, Pakistan remained a dominion for its first nine years of existence and the British Royal prefix was used before the name of each arm of the service.But with the emergence of Pakistan as a Republic on 23rd March 1956 celebrated annually as Pakistan Day this prefix, along with the Royal Salute, was dropped and the regimental were revised to reflect the spirit of new Republic.
The present system of Higher Defence Organization consist of the nation's Chief Executive who controls the activities of the armed forces through his Defence Minister, assisted by the Defence Committee of the Cabinet which collectively form the highest political forum to decide all defence matters concerning state security.
Reporting to this group is the Defence Council, headed by the Defence Minister, which in turn oversees the running of the services through the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. It has a permanent chairman, and the Joint Staff Headquarters serves as the secretariat. Its role is to create effective integration and coordination of the three services(Army, Navy and Air Force).
The Chairman's twin functions are defence planning in peace time, acting as Principal Staff Officer to the Chief Executive in the supervision and conduct of war and as overall coordinator of the war effort.
His principal Staff Officer is the Director General of the Joint Staff whose duties include inter_service liasion and coordination.He also acts as Secretary at meetings between the Defence council and Joint Chief of Staff Committee.
Military service in Pakistan is voluntary. In 1997 the country's armed forces had 587,000 members, including 520,000 in the army, 45,000 in the air force and 22,000 in the navy. Another 247,000 were in paramilitary units.