You seem to be a vetaran fatman17....forgive my ignorance
Wasnt Gen Yaqoob the best man to be the CoAS after Gen Gracey? Or am I confused here?
Gen Sher Ali (He was Maj Gen. at the time he retired, am I correct on this?) He was also to lead PA had he not retired prematurely (forced to). He was superceded by three other officers thus cutting short his impressive tenure...Musa was one I guess?
He was very handsome, I have seen some of his pictures and he looked very impressive to me, particularly suave and a thorough gentleman
AM Nur Khan, particularly popular and held in high respect here in Indian Air Force circles.
Dushmani me bhi missal kayam kiye hain....much revered....
Do not know much about the others though...
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Nawabzada Sher Ali Khan of Pataudi HJ, was born 13 May 1913, the second son of Nawab Ibrahim Ali Khan of Pataudi, in Pataudi. He was educated at Aitchison College, Lahore, the Prince of Wales Royal Indian Military College (RIMC), Dehradun and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.
He was commissioned into the 7th Light Cavalry of the British Indian Army in 1933. He subsequently commanded the First battalion of the First Punjab Regiment during the Second World War.
After the war, he served as the Defence Attaché of the Indian Armed Forces in Washington, D.C.. Having moved to Pakistan at independence, he commanded Pakistan's 14 (Parachute) Brigade during the 1947 Kashmir War in which action he was awarded the Hilal-i-Jurat. He was appointed Adjutant General of the Pakistan Army and later served as the Chief of the General Staff.
He was superseded along with the former Commandant Command and Staff College Maj Gen M.A. Latif Khan when Maj Gen Musa Khan and Maj Gen Habibullah Khan Khattak were made C-in-C and COS respectively in October 1958.[1]
In 1958, on retirement from active service, he was appointed Pakistan's High Commissioner to Malaysia and in 1963 as Ambassador to Yugoslavia with concurrent accreditation to Bulgaria and Greece. He served in the cabinet of General Yahya Khan as Federal Minister for Information, Broadcasting & and National Affairs 1969 - 71.
He was a member of Pakistan's Polo team for many years, Captain of the All Malaysia Polo team for six years and President of the Malayan Polo Association 1959/1963. He also established the Djakarta Riding/Saddle club and was its first elected President.
He taught briefly at Aitchison College and was also Vice Chairman of its Board of Governors. He was the Co-founder and Chairman of the governing body of Viqar-un-Nisa Women's College at Rawalpindi.
He was the Author of several books and the recipient of the highest civil awards from governments in Malaysia, Yugoslavia and Indonesia, and was a Dato of the State of Pahang in Malaysia.
He married Silvat Mueenuddin younger daughter of Mian Ghulam Mueenudin of Lahore [2], and had four sons and a daughter. He died 29 May 2002 at Sher Manzil, Lahore.
His son Major General Isfandiyar Ali Pataudi is the commander of the 26th Mechanized Division of Pakistan Army
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Sahabzada Yaqub Ali Khan ([/B born 23 December 1920) was the international face of Pakistan for three decades. He served as Foreign Minister of Pakistan from 1982 to 1991 during the dying days of Cold War and then caretaker Foreign Minister from 1996 to 1997. Before that, he was Pakistan Ambassador to United States, then Soviet Union and France from 1972 to 1982. He was a central player in the UN negotiations to end the Soviet involvement in Afghanistan.
He was later Pakistan's UN Representative. He also served as the UN's point man in negotiating an end to the Civil War in Nicaragua
Sahabzada Yaqub Khan is a member of the royal family of the erstwhile Indian princely state of Rampur.[1] His father, Sahibzada Sir Abdus Samad Khan Bahadur, was a statesman and diplomat who at various points in his career served as chief minister of the state of Rampur, and as British India's representative to the League of Nations.
Sahabzada Yaqub Khan studied at the famous Prince of Wales Royal Indian Military College, Dehradun. After graduating, he served in North Africa during World War II as a lieutenant in the British Indian Army, taking part in the Siege of Tobruk. He was taken prisoner in 1942, and spent the next three years in an Axis prisoner-of-war camp before being released at the end of the war. After independence, he opted for Pakistan, where he went on to enjoy a distinguished career in the Pakistani Army. Rising to the rank Lieutenant General, Yaqub Khan served as Chief of General Staff, Commander Eastern Command, and briefly after the resignation of Vice Admiral S.M. Ahsan, Governor of East Pakistan.
On retiring from the Army he embarked on a career as a diplomat, serving as Ambassador to France, the United States and Soviet Union from 1972 to 1982. Since 1982 he served as Foreign Minister under seven different governments. Then from 1992 until 1997 Yaqub Khan was the United Nations Secretary General's Special Representative for the Western Sahara.
Sahabzada Yaqub Khan is the founding chairman of the Aga Khan University Board of Trustees, which he chaired for almost two decades until his retirement in 2001.[2] He was a commissioner in the now retired Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict.[3]
Sahabzada Yaqub Khan is married to Begum Tuba Khaleeli, of the prominent Iranian Khaleeli family of Calcutta, and has two sons, Samad and Najib.
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1. Those two above from Wikipedia gives briefs on these eminent sons of Pakistan. Both were thorough gentlemen and excellent human beings. Both were also well learned which perhaps separated them from their colleagues of the time.
2. As GOC in Dhaka Ayub had got close to Khwaza Nazimuddin who was the GG/PM at the crucial time of appointment. And Ayub had a charming / infectious personality. He was also close to the Def Secy Iskandar Mirza, a fellow Sandhurst man with long service in NWFP as Pol Agent. However, the sad truth is that professional competence is not as important as other considerations when appointing people to powerful posts - and Army Chief is not the only one at that count.
3. Yes, few will dispute that Sher Ali in 1948 and Yaqub in 1972 were the most competent among the senior most. Even Mush passed over Aliquli and Khaled Nawaz. But I suppose the men deciding were themselves inferior or had other considerations.