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Islamabad (dpa) - A senior Pakistani military official has said that the country's army would soon start recruiting women officers for active combat duty.
"In the beginning, we will induct some 30 women cadets (for regular commission as officers) in the army's corps of signals, electrical and mechanical engineering (EME) and the legal branch," the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) Saturday quoted chief military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan as saying.
This will be the first exposure of women to these "highly technical" branches of the army, he told the agency.
Sultan said induction of women officers in combat corps would be considered after evaluating performance of these 30 cadets, who would get commission in the army on completion of their studies and military training.
While women doctors and nurses are already serving the army's medical corps, they have never been part of any combat force in the over 500,000-strong army, which mainly comprise infantry, armoured corps and artillery.
For the first time in its history, the army also inducted a Pakistani Sikh, as a cadet in the Pakistan military academy (PMA), some 125 kilometers north of Islamabad.
The cadet, identified as Harcharn Singh, and who joined PMA-116 long course last year, is currently in his second term at the academy and is set to be graduated as Second Lieutenant in October 2007.
Non-Muslim minorities make some three per cent of Pakistan's roughly 155 million mostly Sunni Muslim population. Minorities' representation in the armed forces is also equally low, and only a few Christian officers and soldiers are serving the forces.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Air Force (PAF) for the first time commissioned four women combat fliers in its general duty pilots (GDP) branch last month.
On April 13, two under-training female cadets of the PAF academy became the first Pakistani women to complete a Para-jumping course.
Copyright 2006 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
