Sahabzada Yaqub Khan

Sahabzada Mohammad Yaqub Ali KhanSPk (Urdu: صاحبزادہ یعقوب خان ; 23 December 1920 – 26 January 2016) was a Pakistani politician, diplomat, military figure, linguist, and a retired 3-Star Officer in the Pakistani Army. "He was Pakistan's public face in international affairs for three decades" per The New York Times newspaper obituary.

After independence in 1947, he opted for Pakistan and joined the Pakistan Army where he participated in the Indo-Pakistani war of 1965. He was the commander of the army's Eastern Command in East Pakistan. He was appointed as governor of East Pakistan in 1969 and 1971 but recalled to Pakistan after he submitted his resignation amid civil unrest. In 1973, he joined the foreign service and was appointed as the Pakistan Ambassador to the United States and later ascended as foreign minister, serving under President Zia-ul-Haq in 1982.

His stint as foreign minister played a major role in the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan (1979–89) and he took part in negotiations to end the Contras in Nicaragua (1981–87) on the behalf of the United Nations. In the 1990s, he served as an official of the United Nations for Western Sahara until he was reappointed as foreign minister under Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. After retiring from diplomatic services in 1997, he spent his remaining years in Islamabad and died in Islamabad in 2016.