Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

Ali Kuli Khan Khattak ( ur, ) is a retired

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

i three-star rank general officer and former field commander of

X Corps 10th Corps, Tenth Corps, or X Corps may refer to: France * 10th Army Corps (France) * X Corps (Grande Armée), a unit of the Imperial French Army during the Napoleonic Wars Germany * X Corps (German Empire), a unit of the Imperial German Army * ...

. Prior to this field assignment, he was the chief of general staff and also directed the directorate-general of the

Military Intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from a ...

(DGMI) during his career. Khattak was also an instructor in the National Defence University before being elevated to the senior staff appointments. He has been credited for foresight in predicting the dangers of

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

and the public appraised reputation when thwarting the

conspiracy A conspiracy, also known as a plot, is a secret plan or agreement between persons (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason, especially with political motivation, while keeping their agre ...

hatched by infiltrated rogue officers against the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...

Prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

Benazir Bhutto. He was superseded by the former

Nawaz Sharif Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif (Urdu, Punjabi: ; born 25 December 1949) is a Pakistani businessman and politician who has served as the Prime Minister of Pakistan for three non-consecutive terms. He is the longest-serving prime minister of Pak ...

after approving the appointment of Khattak's course-mate, General Pervez Musharraf to

four-star rank A four-star rank is the rank of any four-star officer described by the NATO OF-9 code. Four-star officers are often the most senior commanders in the armed services, having ranks such as (full) admiral, (full) general, colonel general, army ge ...

and chief of army staff.

Personal life

Ali Kuli Khan Khattak comes from a military family; his father, Habibullah Khan Khattak, was a senior general officer in the Pakistan Army as well as

World war A world war is an international conflict which involves all or most of the world's major powers. Conventionally, the term is reserved for two major international conflicts that occurred during the first half of the 20th century, World WarI (1914 ...

hero. He is brother in law of Gauher Ayub who Pakistani politician and son of General Ayub Khan. After passing the entrance exam with high records, Khattak applied in the ministry of defence for the armed forces. After passing the physical, educational qualifications and social psychological analysis tests, Khattak was asked to report to

Pakistan Military Academy Pakistan Military Academy ( ur, ), also referred to by its acronym PMA. PMA is an officers training school located near Kakul village in the city and district of Abbottabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa established in 1947. It is the sole service academy ...

(PMA). In 1961, he joined the

(PMA) and graduated with a

Bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

from the class of 29th PMA Long Course together with

Pervez Musharraf General Pervez Musharraf ( ur, , Parvez Muśharraf; born 11 August 1943) is a former Pakistani politician and four-star general of the Pakistan Army who became the tenth president of Pakistan after the successful military takeover of t ...

and

Abdul Aziz Mirza Admiral Abdul Aziz Mirza ( ur, ; born 1943) was a Pakistan Navy officer who served as the Chief of Naval Staff from 1999 until retiring in 2002, amid taking over the command of the Navy after the revolt and resignation Admiral Fasih Bokhari ...

(later four-star admiral) of

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It in ...

. Khattak stood first in his course and high academic marks in his educational courses comparing to other officers of joint forces. Khattak was commissioned in the 12th Battalion of the

Baloch Regiment The Baloch Regiment is an infantry regiment of the Pakistan Army. The modern regiment was formed in May 1956 by the merger of 8th Punjab and Bahawalpur Regiments with the Baluch Regiment. Since then, further raisings have brought the strength of ...

, the same regiment his father had earlier served. He participated well in the

1965 war The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 or the Second Kashmir War was a culmination of skirmishes that took place between April 1965 and September 1965 between Pakistan and India. The conflict began following Pakistan's Operation Gibraltar, which was d ...

with India and commanded a small infantry platoon during the conflict.

Career in the military

Indo-Pakistani conflict

After the 1965 war, Kuli attended the Armed Forces War College and proceeded to attend the National Defence University (NDU) and graduated with M.Sc. in

Intelligence assessment Intelligence assessment, or simply intel, is the development of behavior forecasts or recommended courses of action to the leadership of an organisation, based on wide ranges of available overt and covert information (intelligence). Assessments d ...

. He served as an instructor and professor in Command and Staff College in Quetta and research assistant in Armed Forces War College. In 1974, he was promoted to

lieutenant-colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colo ...

; and colonel in 1978. In 1986, he was promoted to one star rank, a Brigadier, and commanded the intelligence brigade. In 1991, he was promoted to

Major-General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...

rank and subsequently became General Officer Commanding of 8th Infantry Division. In 1994, he was appointed as director of directorate-general of the Military Intelligence. In 1995, along with Lieutenant-general

Jehangir Karamat General Jehangir Karamat ( ur, ; born 20 February 1941) best known as JK, is a senior Pakistan Army officer who served as the 6th Chief of Army Staff (Pakistan), Chief of Army Staff of Pakistan Army, from 12 January 1996 to 6 October 1998. ...

(chief of general staff), Khattak successfully infiltrated and thwarted the attempted coup hatched by major-general

Zahirul Islam Abbasi Major General Zahirul Islam Abbasi ( ur, ﻇﻬﻴﺮ ﺍﻹﺳﻼﻡ ﻋﺑﺎﺳﻰ; 12 January 1943 – 30 July 2009) was a former commander and general of the Pakistan Army. Serving in the Siachen region of the disputed territory of Kashmir, ...

in an attempt to overthrow the

Benazir Bhutto and replacing with far-right theocratic regime. He was honored by

Benazir Bhutto publicly and was succeeded to three-star appointment.

Exposing the 1995 coup d'état attempt

As the DGMI, he exposed the 1995 Pakistani coup d'état attempt in which Major General

tried to overthrow the Benazir Bhutto government and install an Islamist regime. This was the fourth failed (and exposed) coup attempt in Pakistani history. The first one was the ''1951 Rawalpindi Conspiracy'' when Maj Gen Akbar Khan, then CGS tried to overthrow the Prime Minister

Liaquat Ali Khan Liaquat Ali Khan ( ur, ; 1 October 1895 – 16 October 1951), also referred to in Pakistan as ''Quaid-e-Millat'' () or ''Shaheed-e-Millat'' ( ur, lit=Martyr of the Nation, label=none, ), was a Pakistani statesman, lawyer, political theoris ...

government over the handling of 1948 Kashmir War, the second one was the ''Attock Conspiracy Case'' during tenure of Prime Minister

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Zulfikar (or Zulfiqar) Ali Bhutto ( ur, , sd, ذوالفقار علي ڀٽو; 5 January 1928 – 4 April 1979), also known as Quaid-e-Awam ("the People's Leader"), was a Pakistani barrister, politician and statesman who served as the fourt ...

, and the third one was during General

Zia-ul-Haq General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq HI, GCSJ, ร.ม.ภ, ( Urdu: ; 12 August 1924 – 17 August 1988) was a Pakistani four-star general and politician who became the sixth President of Pakistan following a coup and declaration of martial ...

's era when Maj Gen Tajammal Hussain Malik was arrested along with other conspirators.Ihtashamul Haque
"Coup leaders wanted Islamic revolution"
''Dawn'', 15 October 1995

Staff and field appointments

Ali Kuli took over the X Corps in October 1995 after his investigations led the Army to uncover the coup attempt. He replaced the then X corps commander Lt Gen Ghulam Muhammad Malik, whose name also surfaced in the coup attempts, but was later exonerated. Kuli later became the Chief of General Staff after Lt Gen

Iftikhar Ali Khan Nawab Mohammad Iftikhar Ali Khan Siddiqui Pataudi, sometimes I. A. K. Pataudi (16 March 1910 – 5 January 1952), was an Indian prince and cricket player. He was the captain of the India's national cricket team during its tour of England in 1 ...

was made the Defence Secretary by then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. He retired from the army when Musharraf was made the COAS in October 1998. At that time, Musharraf superseded two senior officers; Ali Kuli Khan Khattak and Khalid Nawaz, the then Quarter-Master General (QMG).

Resignation

In 1995, he was promoted to Lieutenant-General rank with Pervez Musharraf seconded to him. Problems with Musharraf started in 1995, when Khattak was selected by Chief of Army Staff General Jehangir Karamat as Chief of General Staff. He also had cordial relations with Chief of Army Staff General Karamat, but this came at a bad juncture for Khattak in 1998. In 1998

forcefully relieved General Karamat of his duties (see Dismissal of General Jehangir Karamat). Prime minister ignored General Ali Kuli Khan's appointment and decided to promote Pervez Musharraf to four star rank and assigned duties over him.

Awards and decorations

References

External links

Interview with Lt Gen (r) Ali Kuli Khan Khattak
* ttp://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=3415 I never advocated martial law: Kuli (The News)*http://www.onlinenews.com.pk/details.php?newsid=193502 {{DEFAULTSORT:Khattak, Ali Kuli Khan Pakistani generals Pashtun people Living people Pakistani military personnel of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf politicians Baloch Regiment officers Aitchison College alumni Graduates of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst Quaid-i-Azam University alumni Ali Kuli Khan Army Burn Hall College alumni 1942 births