Pakistan Military Academy

The Pakistan Military Academy (also known as PMA or Kakul) (; Pakistan Fauji Darsgah) is a four-year coeducational federal service military academy. It is located at Kakul near Abbottabad in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

The Pakistan Military Academy is similar in function to Sandhurst, Saint-Cyr, and West Point, and provides training to the officers of Pakistan Army. The academy has three training battalions, and 12 companies. Another 2,000 guests each year, from over 34 countries, receive some training at PMA.

In 2011 Osama bin Laden was killed in a compound in which he was hiding 750 yards (685 m) from the Academy.

History

Pakistan Military Academy was established in October 1947, after the independence of Pakistan from the British Empire. On January 25, 1948, "The First Pakistan Battalion” was instituted. This battalion has four companies which were "named after the luminaries of Muslim military history" (e.g., Khalid, Tariq, Qasim, and Salahuddin). In March 1948, the First Battalion "was bestowed with Quaid-e-Azam’s patronage as Colonel-in-Chief, and the most coveted claim “The Quaid-e-Azam’s Own".

Khawaja Nazimuddin gave the Quaid-e-Azam banner to the Pakistan Military Academy on behalf of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah. The...
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