Twenty-nine years. That is how long the officers of the 95th Long Course have been gathering each 11 October to mark the anniversary of their passing out from the Pakistan Military Academy. They were young men then, at the start of everything. They are senior officers and veterans now. And every year, without fail, they speak the names of the coursemates who did not get to grow old with them. Among those names, always, is Major Zia ul Haq Shaheed.
Between 11 October 1997 and 11 October 2026, his course marked twenty-nine years since passing out. Through all those years, his name has never been forgotten. To be remembered by one’s course, year after year, is an honour that outlasts every medal.
An Officer of 16 Baloch
Major Zia ul Haq, commissioned into the 16 Baloch Regiment, belonged to a proud tradition. The Sword of Honour of the 95th Long Course had been earned by College Senior Under Officer Saad Mahmood, commissioned into the 19 Lancers, a mark of the excellence the course demanded. Major Zia ul Haq was part of that same exacting tradition, and of the same unbreakable brotherhood.
A Long Course at the Pakistan Military Academy is more than a training programme; it is the forging of a lifelong covenant. The cadets who pass out together share something that no later posting can replicate: the memory of having become officers side by side. When one of them falls, the rest carry him with them, not as a burden but as an honour.
That is why, twenty-nine years on, the officers of the 95th Long Course still gather each 11 October and still speak his name. The act of remembrance is itself an act of brotherhood, renewed annually, undiminished by time.
The Martyrs of the 95th
Major Zia ul Haq’s name is honoured alongside the other martyrs of the 95th Long Course: Major Abdul Wahid Danish Shaheed of 46 Supply and Transport, Colonel Sajjad Ul Haq Shaheed, ex 105 Field Artillery, Major Abid Majeed Shaheed of 19 Punjab, Brigadier M Nadeem Shaheed of 35 Punjab, Major Afzaal Ahmed Shaheed of Air Defence, Lieutenant Colonel Shahab Qadeer Shaheed, ex 127 Air Defence, and Lieutenant Colonel Khadim Hussain Shaheed of 67 Punjab and 909 Military Intelligence.
Eight names from a single course, each one a life given in uniform. The 95th Long Course has lost many of its officers over the years, and each anniversary gathering is a little smaller than the last. Yet the names of the fallen are spoken with undiminished pride, and Major Zia ul Haq’s name is always among them.
The Covenant of a Course
Decorations are pinned on chests; remembrance is carried in hearts. Major Zia ul Haq of the 16 Baloch Regiment earned the rarer of the two, and his course has never withdrawn it. Twenty-nine years of anniversaries, twenty-nine years of names spoken aloud, twenty-nine years of a promise kept: that the fallen are still on parade, still counted, still part of the brotherhood.
Think about what that means. Nearly three decades of reunions, and not one has passed without his name. The coursemates who speak it have lived entire lives since Kakul, careers, families, triumphs and losses of their own. And still they remember. That is not habit. That is love, the love of men who became officers together and decided, silently and together, that none of them would ever be left behind, not in life, and not in memory.
As long as the 95th Long Course gathers, Major Zia ul Haq Shaheed remains present among them.
A Lasting Tribute
Maj Zia ul Haq Shaheed served Pakistan faithfully and gave everything he had. May Allah grant him the highest ranks in Jannah and give his family comfort in the knowledge that the nation honours him, and that his brothers in arms have carried his name for twenty-nine years and will carry it always.
We salute him, and we salute all the shuhada of Pakistan, whose sacrifices guard our tomorrow.
