Nigar Johar
Nigar Johar Khan is a retired three-star general in the Pakistan Army. Nigar is the first and only woman in the history of Pakistan Army to reach the rank of lieutenant-general, and the third to reach the rank of major-general. She belongs to the Pakistan Army Medical Corps and served as the surgeon general of Pakistan Army and Colonel commandant of Army Medical Corps. The other five women major-generals Shahida Badsha, Shahida Malik, Shehla Baqai, Abeera Chaudhry and Shazia Nisar also belong to the Army Medical Corps.
In 2015, she was featured in an Inter-Services Public Relations video honoring women in the Pakistan Armed Forces. At the time, she was the deputy commandant of the Combined Military Hospital, Rawalpindi.
Education and background
Born Nigar Qadir was born in Panjpir village in the Swabi District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province to a Pashtun family. Her father, Abdul Qadir, was an army colonel who served in the ISI. Both her parents along with her two younger sisters died in a car accident in 1989. Only her brother survived. Her husband, Johar, an engineer in the military, died in 2019 due to cancer.Nigar Johar completed her schooling through the Presentation Convent Girls High School, Rawalpindi in 1978. She joined the Army Medical College in 1981, graduating in 1985. She is from the 5th MBBS course of the Army Medical College and has served as a 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 received a Master of Public Health degree from the same institute.