Aziz Khan (general)

General Muhammad Aziz Khan, NI(M), SBt, HI(M), (born January 1, 1947) is a retired four-star rank general officer in the Pakistan Army who served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee.

Prior to this four-star appointment, he was the field operational commander of the IV Corps stationed in Lahore, Punjab Province of Pakistan. He came into public notice in 1999 and was an instrumental of removing elected Prime minister Nawaz Sharif in a military coup d'état that brought General Pervez Musharraf into the power in country's national politics.

Personal
General Aziz Khan was born on 1 January 1947 in the village of Dhar Dhrach, Palandri, and studied at High School Palandri (now Post Graduate College Palandri).

Military career
Aziz Khan was commissioned in the Pakistan Army in 1966 in the 1st War Course (thus junior to 37th PMA, but senior to 38th PMA) in the Infantry's Punjab Regiment. He was a graduate of Command and Staff College, Quetta and National Defence College, Rawalpindi.

As a Colonel, Aziz was the Personal Military Secretary to the former President of Pakistan, General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. He also served as the Military Personnel at the Pakistan Embassy in Washington DC in late 1980s. Returning ot Pakistan, as a brigadier, Aziz worked as the Chief of Staff (COS) of the X Corps under the then Corps Commander Lt Gen Ghulam Muhammad Malik and also commanded an infantry brigade in the Siachen area around the same time. After that, he served as the deputy director of Inter-Services Intelligence. He was then posted as the Commander Force Command Northern Areas (FCNA), Gilgit who is responsible for the entire Kashmir region and Northern Areas operations (It is worthy to mention that the entire Pakistani forces in Kargil War was conducted by then Commander FCNA Maj Gen Javed Hassan).

Chief of General Staff
General Aziz was promoted to Lt Gen in October 1998 by the recently appointed COAS Pervez Musharraf and posted as Chief of General Staff (CGS). During the Kargil War in 1999, General Aziz Khan was serving as the CGS under General Pervez Musharraf. Secret recordings of alleged conversations between General Musharraf and General Aziz were apparently "intercepted" by the Indian intelligence during the Kargil Campaign. Said recordings proved that Pakistan Army had secretly invaded Kashmir.

When Aziz Khan was made the Chief of General Staff (CGS), the posting was contrary to norms of Army, as generally the senior most Lieutenant General occupy it and is considered the second-in-command of the Army. In August 2000, Aziz Khan was transferred as Corps Commander Lahore (August 2000 - October 2001).

Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee
After the September 11 attacks and the subsequent US invasion of Afghanistan, General Aziz Khan was transferred to the ceremonial post Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. While being promoted, Aziz Khan was sixth in the seniority list of Lt Gens. Lieutenant Generals Muzaffar Usmani, Yusaf Khan (who was also promoted to four-star and made VCOAS), Mahmud Ahmed, Khalid Maqbool, and Hamid Javaid were all senior to him, all of whom stood superseded. He also stayed as the Colonel-in-Chief of the Punjab Regiment appointed by General Pervez Musharraf on 21 March 2003.

Post-retirement
Aziz Khan also stayed as the honorary president of Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) from July 2000 to January 2005.

General Aziz is currently writing his memoirs. He belongs to the influential Sudhan tribe of Azad Kashmir. He is married and has three daughters and one son.