Khalid Mahmud Arif (29 December 1930 – 6 March 2020) better known as K. M. Arif, was a four-star rank general of the Pakistan Army, who served as the Vice Chief of Army Staff under President General Zia-ul-Haq from 1984 to 1987 and was considered one of his closest confidants. An intelligence assessment made by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 1982 on who would succeed General Zia-ul-Haq in the event of his death mentioned Arif as one of the generals who may succeed him: "A darkhorse candidate is Lt. Gen. K. M. Arif, who runs the federal bureaucracy through the martial law secretariat, where he serves as chief of staff to Zia in the latter's role as Chief Martial Law Administrator. Arif is regarded as the most skilled bureaucratic player in Islamabad. He wants a corps command, and he recently tried unsuccessfully to resign as Zia's chief of staff. He has also supported negotiations between the martial law administration and the opposition political parties." His career in the army was mostly spent in the military intelligence, and served in the East Pakistan Rifles, briefly fighting in the civil war aided by neighboring India. Upon repatriation to Pakistan in 1973, he continued with his military service in the army and eventually ascended as director-general of military intelligence before assuming the staff appointment at the Army GHQ. Appointed as vice-chief of army staff in 1984, he played crucial role in stabilizing the administration of President Zia-ul-Haq, and was succeeded by General Mirza Aslam Beg as army chief in March 1987. Upon his retirement in 1987, he authored several books on the political and military history of Pakistan, of which Working With Zia: Pakistan's Power Politics is the best known.
Early life and education Khalid Mahmud Arif was born into a Kakazai family of Pashtun descent on 29 December 1930 in Jullundur to Akbar Hussain. He attended Edwardes College in Peshawar and graduated in 1947.
Military career He joined the 1st Course of the Officers Training School in Kohat as a cadet on 17 March 1949. His family permanently moved to Kohat as he gained commission into the Armoured Corps. In 1952, he was selected for further military training in the United States and was sent to attend the United States Army Armor School at Fort Knox, where he graduated in specializing in the armoured tactics. He was further educated in Military College of Signals in Rawalpindi where he excelled in intelligence management, and graduated from Staff College, Quetta.
War appointments and in East Pakistan In 1965, Arif, as a Major, served in the armoured corps along with then-Lieutenant Colonel Zia-ul-Haq and participated in the second war with India over the disputed Kashmir. Arif commanded an American M48 tank Squadron against the Indian Army. After the war, he was sent back to the military intelligence and stationed in East Pakistan (in the East Pakistan Rifles). Promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 1967, he greatly aided towards troop redeployment of the Eastern Command in formulating a battle plan, codename: "Operation X-Sunderbans-1." The deployment, however, was non combative and it was only designed to form the basis for the operational combat plan. Lieutenant Colonel Arif commanded the Punjab Cavalry from 7 January 1968 to 6 January 1969. In 1969, he was posted in Dhaka as a martial law officer under the Government of East Pakistan led by Governor Vice Admiral S. M. Ahsan in 1969. During this stint, Arif reportedly relied a secretive message in his complied report in regards to the situation in East that ultimately warned off the consequences of the civil war. In March 1971, he was promoted to full Colonel and witnessed the meeting with President Yahya Khan who decided the launch of the military operations against the rebels in the East should take place. Arif took over the situation himself to control the law and order. About this meeting, Arif described the meeting as: President Yahya took matters in his hands, thus good bye to civil bureaucracy. In East, he fought and led an Infantry Battalion to fight the approaching Indian Army, and was captured by the Indian Army units who held him as war prisoner after the instrument of surrender was signed between Lieutenant General A.A.K. Niazi and Lieutenant General Jagjit Singh Aurora, GOC-in-C of Eastern Command of Indian military in 1971.
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
