Gul Hassan Khan
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| Gul Hassan Khan | |
|---|---|
| 9 June 1921 – 10 October 1999 (aged 78) | |
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| Allegiance |  Pakistan |
| Service/branch | Pakistan Army (PA – 457) |
| Years of service | 1942 – 1972 |
| Rank | Lieutenant General |
| Unit | Armoured Corps |
| Commands held | 1st Armoured Division, Multan Chief of General Staff (CGS) Commander-in-Chief of Pakistan Army |
| Battles/wars | Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 |
| Awards | Sitara-i-Quaid-i-Azam (SQA) Sitara-e-Pakistan (SPk) |
General Gul Hassan Khan, SPk, SQA, (9 June 1921 – 10 October 1999) was the last Commander-in-Chief, Pakistan Army. General Gul Hassan, a Sunni Pashtun born in Quetta, was educated at La Martiniere College in Lucknow and the Royal Indian Military College (now the Rashtriya Indian Military College), Dehradun, India. He was commissioned in the Indian Army on 22 February, 1942. After independence, he served the Pakistan Army for 25 years. Later in his career, he commanded the 1st Armoured Division at Multan. In 1969, he was made the Chief of General Staff (CGS) of the Pakistan Army.
Following the defeat of Pakistan to the Indian Military and the secession of East Pakistan (present day Bangladesh), he was appointed acting C-in-C on 20 December 1971 as Yahya Khan, his predecessor had to resign after widespread protests in Pakistan. He thus became the first person to be appointed to the post in a divided Pakistan (erstwhile West Pakistan). He superseded one of his seniors at ascension, Lt Gen Tikka Khan, the commander II Corps. Tikka later became Chief of Army Staff.[1] He was appointed permanent C-in-C on 22 January 1972.
His tenure, however, was short-lived. He was ousted as army chief on March 3, 1972 by President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He was allegedly huddled up in a car and taken to Lahore by road by Ghulam Mustafa Khar, a politician and a close associate of Bhutto's.He married later on with an Austrian lady and had a son, Sher Hassan Khan.
He had three brothers and a sister. He has relatives still residing in Pabbi near Peshawar, and in Quetta, Pakistan. General Gul Hassan Khan died in 1999 and was buried in Pabbi in Nowshera District (Main town of Chearat Cant, Chowki Mumriaz, Taroo Jaba, Akber Pura).
In the last few years of his life he was dividing his time between Vienna, Austria and Rawalpindi, Pakistan. He wrote a book Memoirs of Lt. Gen. Gul Hassan Khan.
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[edit] See also
- General Sahabzada Yaqub Khan
- General Musa Khan
- General Rao Farman Ali
- General Mitha
[edit] Further reading
- Gul Hassan Khan, Memoirs of Lt.Gen.Gul Hassan Khan, OUP Pakistan (1994) ISBN 0-19-577445-0
[edit] References
- ^ Brig A.R. Siddiqui. "Army's top slot: the seniority factor" Dawn, 25 April, 2004
[edit] External links
| Military offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Sahabzada Yaqub Khan |
Chief of General Staff 1969 – 1971 |
Succeeded by M. Rahim Khan |
| Preceded by Yahya Khan |
Commander-in-Chief, Pakistan Army 1971 – 1972 |
Succeeded by Tikka Khan |
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