Yahya Khan

Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan (February 4 1917 – August 10 1980) was the President of Pakistan from 1969 to 1971, following the resignation of Ayub Khan.

Character as an officer

Yahya was from a reasonably well to do family, had a Grammar school education and was directly commissioned as an officer. He was respected in the officer corps for professional competence.

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Yahya was a hard drinking soldier approaching the scale of Mustafa Kemal of Turkey and had a reputation of not liking teetotallers. Yahya liked courtesans but his passion had more to do with listening to them sing or watching them dance (His affair with Pakistan's most legendary singer Noor Jehan was quite scandalous at its time). Thus he did not have anything of Ataturk?s practical womanising traits. Historically speaking many great military commanders like Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Eftikhar Khan and General Grant were accused of debauchery and womanising. These personal habits still did not reduce their personal efficiency and all of them are remembered in military history as great military commanders.

Related Topics:
Mustafa Kemal - Noor Jehan - Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

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General Gul Hasan Khan who served with Yahya in the General Headquarters in the early 1960s described Yahya as "professionally competent" and as a man of few words who always approached the point at issue without ceremony.

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Muqeem described Yahya as "authoritarian by nature" and "reserved by temperament". Major General Sher Ali under whom Yahya served, assessed Yahya as an officer of the "highest calibre". Shaukat Riza writing as recently as 1986 described Yahya as a good soldier, as a commander distinguished for his decision making and generous nature and one who gave his total trust to a man whom he accepted as part of his team or a colleague.

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At least in 1966-69, Yahya was definitely viewed as a professional in the army. His shortcomings in functioning as the Supreme Commander that became evident in the 1971 war could not have been known to anyone in 1966. No evidence exists, but it appears that Yahya?s sect and ethnicity may have played a part in Ayub?s decision to select Yahya as C in C. Musa writes in his memoirs that Yahya was not his first choice as Army C in C but was selected by Ayub overruling Musa?s reservations about Yahya?s character. This further proves that Ayub selected Yahya as the army chief for reasons other than merit. Not that Yahya was incompetent, but merely the fact that Ayub was motivated by ulterior reasons to select Yahya. Altaf Gauhar, Ayub?s close confidant inadvertently proves this fact. He described Yahya as one " selected?in preference to some other generals, because Yahya, who had come to hit the bottle hard, had no time for politics and was considered a harmless and loyal person".

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