• Home
• Video
• Books by Ikram Sehgal
• About

Good soldier, sincere patriot

Gen Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan was born on 4 Feb 1917 in Chakwal. He was commissioned at the age of 21 in 1938 from the Indian Military Academy at Dehra Din. He had the honour of being the King’s Cadet and was the runner-up for the Sword of Honour, which incidentally was won by noted polo-player (later Brig Effendi). From the IMA, he was sent for “orientation” (the usual attachment for Indian native officers) to the 2nd Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment (Queen Mary’s Own) for a period of two years. Thereafter he was posted to the 3rd Battalion of the 10th Baloch Regiment (now known as 10 Baloch). However, during the war he was sent to 4th Battalion 10 Baloch Regt (later 11 Baloch) which joined the 8th Indian Division in the North African theatre of operations in World War II. After the surrender of the German Afrika Corps, 8th Indian Division moved to Italy where in the deadly struggle around Mount Cassino, a part of the Division was decimated with many British Indian Officers and other ranks either killed or captured by the counter-attacking German para-troops thrown into battle under the direct orders of Marshal Kesselring.

In the POW camp in the mountains of North Italy, the POWs were kept lightly clad (silk shirts) in order to discourage escape attempts. Among the POWs in the camp were Effendi (later Brig Pakistan Army), Yahya Khan (later Gen C-in C Pakistan Army and President of Pakistan), Sahibzada Yaqoob Khan (later Lt Gen Commander Eastern Command Pakistan Army and thrice Foreign Minister Pakistan), Kumarangalam (later Chief of Army Staff Indian Army) and Tikka Khan (later Gen and Chief of Army Staff). Effendi, Yahya and Kumarangalam escaped from the Camp but Kumarangalam was later recaptured. Effendi and Yahya were hidden by local womenfolk, living off the countryside in the cold mountains, in small caves acting as hideouts, till finally they reached safety as the advancing Allied troops reached them. Very coincidentally, Yahya Khan and Kumarangalam were appointed Commanders of the opposing armies of Pakistan and India in 1966 (after the September 1965 Indo-Pakistan War).

After doing his Command and Staff College in Quetta and serving as Brigade Major, then Lt Col Yahya was given command of 7 Baloch in Malir Cantt. He remained in command till near Independence in 1947 when he was posted as the first Muslim instructor in Command and Staff College at Quetta, in effect becoming the first Pakistani instructor in the prestigious military institution, one in which Field Marshal Montgomery had served as one of the Instructors in the 30s.

Command and Staff College Quetta had one of the finest libraries in the sub-continent and its Officers Mess had the most valuable silver of all the military institutions in British India. The Hindu and Sikh officers wanted to divide the library books and the Mess silver. Yahya Khan’s response was to give his batman a weapon and have him lock the Mess from inside while he himself kept watch in the Library with a loaded revolver. In the early 50s part of the great treasure of books was destroyed by fire but the credit goes to then Lt Col Yahya Khan for keeping the books and mess silver intact.

After his stint at Quetta, Yahya Khan was posted to command a battalion in Azad Kashmir but on the way was seriously injured in an accident. He was then posted as GSO-1 in the MT Directorate in GHQ, Rawalpindi. Thereafter he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier and Commanded 106 Bde at Jalalpur Jattan, later going on to become Deputy Chief of General Staff (DCGS). In 1958 the then C-in-C, Gen Mohammad Ayub Khan, promoted him as Chief of General Staff (CGS) of the Pakistan Army.

Suspecting that a military coup was being planned in the Armed Forces hierarchy and that Yahya Khan and Hameed Khan (later Gen, Chief of Staff Pakistan Army) were the active Young Turks in the Army while Nur Khan (later C-in-C Pakistan Air Force and Governor West Pakistan) was the trouble-some one in the Air Force, secret orders were given by the then President Iskander Mirza to the IB to intercept and hold these three officers for questioning. Yahya Khan was rumoured to have travelled from Rawalpindi to Karachi in disguise carrying important documents while Hameed and Nur Khan made themselves scarce. While he was not among the four senior generals who went to Iskander Mirza and forced him to abdicate as President on Oct 27, 1958, allowing Gen Ayub, the Chief Martial Law Administrator, to take over as President, Yahya Khan provided Ayub with firm evidence of Mirza’s duplicity which convinced the reluctant Ayub to finally move against his long-term friend.

Yahya Khan remained as Chief of the General Staff of the Pakistan Army from 1958 to 1962. It was during his time that massive reorganisation and modernisation of the Pakistan Army took place. Most of the pamphlets as well as induction of new weapons and equipment under US Military Aid to Pakistan (MAP) programme (and training thereof), took place during Yahya Khan’s stint as CGS. Almost everyone agrees that Yahya Khan was a brilliant staff officer who was primarily responsible for the changeover from the antiquated British system to the more modern US one. Along with his job as CGS, Ayub Khan in 1959 made him the Chairman of the Capital Finding Commission. Not many people know that the selection of Islamabad and the actual site was made by Yahya Khan, though there is no doubt about Ayub Khan’s dominant influence in shifting the Capital from Karachi to near his beloved Rawalpindi. Yahya Khan was then made the first Chairman of the Capital Development Authority (CDA). The layout and planning of modern Islamabad and the actual shifting of the Capital from Karachi to Islamabad when the initial buildings were complete was supervised by him. At that time it was taken to be almost an impossible task, especially in the short span of 3-4 years.

As CGS and Chairman of the CDA Yahya Khan was a frequent visitor to Karachi-(and Sindh Club). The first Martial Law commanded a lot of respect in the country and Yahya Khan was a most sought after officer. Most of the times he held “court” in Sindh Club and Pindi Club. According to Yahya Khan’s own admission, he revelled in the attention. One day, surrounded by a host of “admirers”, males and females, in the Sindh Club, he noticed a parting of the crowd. In his own words “I realised that this must be an important person as the Karachi business crowd would never part even for their own mothers or fathers. This distinguished looking gentlemen came upto me, put his hand forward and said, “Hello General, I am Gul Mohammad Adamjee”. Off course I instantly knew who this great business and industrial magnate was but I was not going to be given an inferiority complex by the likes of him. I put my hand forward and said “Hello, Gulloo, what do you do for a living ?” Gul Mohammad Adamjee seemed stunned as if he was struck by lightning and soon after he left the club in a daze. When he got home i.e at midnight, his wife asked him, “how come you are home so early, Gulloo, you usually come back at 3 in the morning ?” Gul Mohammad Adamjee replied, “I met a “Bhooka” (hungry) sepahi (soldier) who asked me, what I did for a living ?”

In 1962, Maj Gen A.M.Yahya Khan was sent to command 14 Division in East Pakistan. There being only one Division (14 Division in East Pakistan) at that time, GOC 14 Div served almost as a SATRAP with commensurate powers.

On a personal note, in late 1963 I was a Student in Final Year BSc in Notre Dame College with concurrent admission in Dhaka University because of Cricket and Athletics. Gen Yahya had been telling my father for some time to send me to the Army, the “second generation”. After hearing me speak at a debate, Gen Yahya rang up my father, then commanding Dinajpur Sector EPR, “Chand goes to the Army”. Both as a subordinate and friend, my father had little choice but it took Salman (later Col Salman CO SSG), at that time in 1st Term PMA) to convince me to leave two lucrative career scholarships, one by BOC and the other one from ESSO, both offering a safe job post-graduation. In the pre-medical examination I was found to have “nasal polypus”. No matter, the then ADC to the GOC, Capt Agha Wajahat Ali came to where I was staying and bundled me to CMH Dhaka where the “Nasal Polypus” and my last envise were both removed at one time. I whatever I am today, the Army taught and groomed me to become much later found out that his reasoning was that since I would certainly do extremely well in Army, with a Punjabi father and Bengali mother I would be symbolic of what he thought was the “real” Pakistan concept. Unfortunately other people had other ideas !

Maj Gen Yahya Khan came back to command 15 Div at Sialkot in 1964, before moving to command 7 Div at Peshawar in early 1965. By this time 7 Div was already moving to its operational concentration area near Gujrat. Localised battles had begun in earnest in Chamb-Jaurian sector in August 1965. Two of 7 Div’s Brigades were given over to Comd 12 Div for “Operation Grand Slam”. Because of the initial successes, India reacted by crossing the international border on Sept 6 and full-scale war broke out on all points. Before that Gen Yahya had taken over command of the Sector in a changeover that remains somewhat controversial but there is no doubt that he only accepted to do so when he saw that the command was over extended and in danger of breaking down. Once he realised that urgency was very necessary, he did so at once without waiting for the incumbent to formally hand over to him. After the war, Maj Gen A.M.Yahya Khan was appointed C-in-C to replace Gen Musa Khan in August 1966. With the political struggle against Ayub Khan in March 1969 moving out of control and the country threatened with strife and anarchy, Gen Yahya Khan took over as President and Chief Martial Law Administrator from his mentor Gen Mohammad Ayub Khan. He stated that he had a one-point agenda and within 20 months he held what is even today accepted universally as the most free and fair elections in Pakistan’s history. All of it went horribly wrong and ended in a disaster for Pakistan. In front of the Hamoodur Rahman Commission, he said I quote from the compilation published by Mr Baset, “I do not present myself as a model of rectitude or piety. I am a sinful man. There do exist many serious flaws in my personal character. I have always sought forgiveness from Allah Almighty for my many sins. However, to project an image that I used to remain so drunk after dusk as to be incapable of attending to official work is nothing but an item of psychological warfare against me.”

“I did what was humanly possible to preserve the territorial integrity of Pakistan. I did not break Pakistan. Pakistan was broken by others whose faces are not recognised by the public today. I am sure that a day will dawn, whether or not I am alive when people of Pakistan will figure out for themselves who broke Pakistan and how. No single man can be blamed for the destruction of Pakistan. Many people have acted together to do so. They all would be exposed. They have all acted for personal gain at the cost of the unity of Pakistan. I believe I am not one of them. I make no excuses for myself. I am the Commander-in-Chief who lost the war. I lost East Pakistan. I have not lived upto my own expectations. I could have done better. However, India did not win in East Pakistan due to any default on my part. Pakistan did have a grand strategy and there was nothing wrong with it. This was our only option. Given the situation and the factors operating on our side, the outcome is inevitable. If the constellation of circumstances were to recur, the outcome would also recur. In the precise situation in which East Pakistan was run over, there is hardly any military achievement any Indian General can be proud of. Given the balance of forces which existed on the field when the battle started, even a Havaldar could have led Indian forces to victory. Pakistan Army was defeated because it was eventually placed in a situation where no Army could win or even continue to fight. It was defeated in a situation where no Army in the world could have avoided defeat. Forget about the public speeches I and others have made to defend East Pakistan. I knew the result of the India-Pakistan War on the Eastern Front from day one.” Unquote.

There were four major players in the crisis that ended in the separation of East Pakistan from West Pakistan, Indira Gandhi, Yahya Khan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Sheikh Mujibur Rehman. Indira Gandhi, Bhutto and Sheikh Mujib all met violent deaths at the hands of their own people. Indeed one wonders why someone whom the propaganda cast as the most vilified person in Pakistan’s history should die a peaceful natural death when other violent ends. On Jumat-ul-Wida on 08 Aug 1980 thousands came to his funeral. Even though the State considered it at a non-event, he was buried with full military honours, his beloved 11 Baloch rendering the “last post”. Gen Yahya Khan was a sincere patriot who, unlike others, acknowledged publicly he failed the country in the acid test of his professional life. Of all the rulers we have had through the last 50 years, why are only his children and near relations not wallowing in unmeasurable wealth ? History has not yet written its final judgement on the late President, it may become kinder as all the facts emerge out of the mist of time.

Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.