Gul Hassan Khan

Lieutenant General Gul Hassan Khan Date of Birth: 1921 Date of Death: 1999 Chief of the Army StaffTenure Order: 6th Chief of the Army Staff Took Office: 20th of December, 1971 Predecessor: Gen. Abdul Hamid KhanSuccessor: Gen. Tikka Khan

Lieutenant General Gul Hassan Khan was the Chief of Army Staff, Pakistan. Lieutenant 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. In 1933 he was commissioned in the Indian Army. After independence, he served the Pakistan Army for 25 years. In 1968, 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 became the Chief of Army Staff 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). His tenure, however, was shortlived. 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.

External links

Article about General Gul Hassan

Military offices Preceded by
Major General Sahabzada Yaqub KhanChief of General Staff
1969–1971 Succeeded by
Major General Rahim Khan Preceded by
General Yahya Khan Commander in Chief of Pakistan Army
1971–1972 Succeeded by
General Tikka Khan