Ali Kuli Khan Khattak comes from a military family; his father, Habibullah Khan Khattak, was a senior general officer in the Pakistan Army as well as World War II hero. He is brother in law of Gauher Ayub who is a Pakistani politician and son of General Ayub Khan. After passing the entrance exam with high records, Khattak applied in the ministry of defence for the armed forces. After passing the physical, educational qualifications and social psychological analysis tests, Khattak was asked to report to Pakistan Military Academy (PMA). In 1961, he joined the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA) and graduated with a Bachelor's degree from the class of 29th PMA Long Course together with Pervez Musharraf and Abdul Aziz Mirza (later four-star admiral) of Navy. Khattak stood first in his course and high academic marks in his educational courses comparing to other officers of joint forces. Khattak was commissioned in the 12th Battalion of the Baloch Regiment, the same regiment his father had earlier served.
He participated well in the 1965 war with India and commanded a small infantry platoon during the conflict.
As the DGMI, he exposed the 1995 Pakistani coup d'état attempt in which Major General Zahirul Islam Abbasi tried to overthrow the Benazir Bhutto government and install an Islamist regime. This was the fourth failed (and exposed) coup attempt in Pakistani history. The first one was the 1951 Rawalpindi Conspiracy when Maj Gen Akbar Khan, then CGS tried to overthrow the Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan government over the handling of 1948 Kashmir War, the second one was the Attock Conspiracy Case during tenure of Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and the third one was during General Zia-ul-Haq's era when Maj Gen Tajammal Hussain Malik was arrested along with other conspirators.[1]
Staff and field appointments
Ali Kuli took over the X Corps in October 1995 after his investigations led the Army to uncover the coup attempt. He replaced the then X corps commander Lt Gen Ghulam Muhammad Malik, whose name also surfaced in the coup attempts, but was later exonerated. Kuli later became the Chief of General Staff after Lt Gen Iftikhar Ali Khan was made the Defence Secretary by then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. He retired from the army when Musharraf was made the COAS in October 1998. At that time, Musharraf superseded two senior officers; Ali Kuli Khan Khattak and Khalid Nawaz, the then Quarter-Master General (QMG).
Resignation
In 1995, he was promoted to Lieutenant-General rank with Pervez Musharraf seconded to him.[2] Problems with Musharraf started in 1995, when Khattak was selected by Chief of Army Staff General Jehangir Karamat as Chief of General Staff.[2] He also had cordial relations with Chief of Army Staff General Karamat, but this came at a bad juncture for Khattak in 1998.[3] In 1998 Prime ministerNawaz Sharif forcefully relieved General Karamat of his duties (see Dismissal of General Jehangir Karamat).[3] Prime minister ignored General Ali Kuli Khan's appointment and decided to promote Pervez Musharraf to four star rank and assigned duties over him.[3]
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