Ghulam Jilani Khan (Punjabi, (1924–1999) was a general of the Pakistan Army who served as the 14th Governor of Punjab Province and the 11th Defence Secretary of Pakistan in the military government of President General Zia-ul-Haq.
Commissioned in 1944, Jilani was a junior officer in the Indian Army and served with distinction in the Second World War, then with the partition of 1947 opted for Pakistan and took a leave of absence to join the fighting in Kashmir as an irregular. He returned to the regular army and joined the Military Intelligence Directorate. He later commanded field operations in the 1965 and 1971 wars against India. In 1971 he assumed the directorship of the Directorate-General for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). After six years there, he assisted General Zia in the operation code-named Fair Play to remove Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, subsequently joining Zia's military administration as Secretary General at the Ministry of Defence. In 1980, he was appointed martial law administrator and Governor of the Punjab Province, which he governed until 1985. He is also known as the mentor of Nawaz Sharif, whom he made Chief Minister of Punjab."Senior Politician Reveals How General Jilani Made Nawaz Sharif CM of Punjab", nayadaur.tv, 4 December 2019
In retirement, Jilani was the principal founder of Chand Bagh School.
Early life and military career Educated at the Doon School, Dehradun,Neena Sharma, Doscos to celebrate 75th anniversary from The Tribune dated 18 October 2010, at tribuneindia.com, Retrieved 24 March 2012: "Old-timers will happily tell you that the school inspired old Doscos from Pakistan to establish a similar school in their country "The Chand Bagh school is inspired by the Doon and was founded by Lt Gen Ghulam Jilani Khan (retd) in 1998 in Lahore", said Piyush Malviya, Public Relations officer, Doon School." and the Indian Military Academy, Jilani was commissioned into the Indian Army in 1944 in the 129th DCO Baluchis of the 10th Baluch Regiment as an infantry officer. Between 1944 and 1945 he served in Burma as a second lieutenant, second-in-command of the Mortar Platoon of the Support CompanyHasan Akhtar 'Pakistan Army hierarchy switch by President Zia' in The Times, issue 60608 dated 23 April 1980, p. 6, col. B Between 1945 and 1947 as a lieutenant and platoon leader, he commanded a rifle platoon of the Pathan Rifle Company of the 129th Baluchis. The troops in his unit were from the Mahsud and Awan tribes.
In 1947, with the independence, his unit was transferred to the new Pakistan Army. Between 1947 and 1948 he was granted a leave of absence to become a guerrilla fighter in Kashmir. He was not only a fierce opponent of India but also a supporter of the United States. During the 1950s, as a captain, he was a 2 i/c of the Support Company and also rifle company commander in the Baloch Regiment as well as a battalion adjutant as a major, and for a time his battalion was posted in East Pakistan. He was promoted to major in 1952 and to lieutenant colonel in 1957. He attended the Senior Staff Course (for Division level staff officers) at the Staff College Quetta in 1954–55. After serving briefly as brigade major and as aide-de-camp to Iskandar Ali Mirza in 1955-56 and as an instructor and adjutant at the Pakistan Military Academy between 1956 and 1958, he was the commanding officer of the 11th Battalion of the Baloch Regiment between 1958 and 1960 and CO of the 12th Battalion between 1960 and 1961. In his capacity as battalion commander, he was for a time also the martial law administrator of Pakpattan District. In 1961 he was selected for a Military Intelligence appointment under the Directorate-General of Military Intelligence. He was promoted to colonel in 1963, and in 1965 he was the Military Intelligence Field Officer attached with the 6th Armoured Division at Chawinda. He was promoted to the rank of brigadier in 1967 and was for most of the time after that a departmental director in the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, except for a short stint as commandant of the Baluch Regimental Centre & Recruit Depot (BRC&RD) at Abbottabad in 1969–70.
During 1971 he was with the Pakistani forces fighting Bangladeshi independence which suffered painful defeats at the hands of the Indian Army.Abhijit Bhattacharyya, THE TURBULENT HISTORY OF THE STATE WITHIN A STATE from The Telegraph dated 12 February 2012, at telegraphindia.com, accessed 6 April 2012 With the rank of brigadier he was chief of staff to the commander-in-chief of Eastern Command until the middle of 1971, when he was promoted Major-General and posted to Pakistan's principal intelligence agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, as director general.Hasan Zaheer, The Separation of East Pakistan: the rise and realisation of Bengali Muslim Nationalism (Oxford University Press, 1994), p. 505: "Brigadier Ghulam Jillani, Chief of Staff to the Commander Eastern Command until the middle of the year...
From 1971 to 1978 Jilani headed the ISI, being the third man to hold the position.Sabir Shah, Lieutenant General Zaheer 18th DG ISI since 1959 dated 10 March 2012, at thenews.com.pk, Retrieved 24 March 2012: "The 17 Pakistan army officials who have headed the ISI to date, are: Brigadier Riaz Hussain (1959 to 1966), Major General (then Brig) Mohammad Akbar Khan (1966 to 1971), Lieutenant General (then Major General) Ghulam Jilani Khan (1971 to 1978)..." In that role, he served three Pakistani governments, those headed successively by Yahya Khan, Z. A. Bhutto, and Zia-ul-Haq.Ashok Kapur, Pakistan in Crisis (Routledge, 2002), p. 128 In 1976, when Tikka Khan retired as Chief of Army Staff, Jilani was the fifth most senior army officer. Tikka Khan considered those in the first, second and fourth positions unsuitable to replace him, so recommended the third most senior officer, Akbar Khan, to Prime Minister and Defence Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. In the event, Bhutto ignored this recommendation and chose instead General Zia-ul-Haq, seventh in the list of seniority. Jilani, who lacked the experience of combat formation command above higher than an infantry battalion, was thus passed over, but in fact he had lobbied Bhutto to appoint Zia, and Bhutto later wrote that he had been influenced in the matter by General Jilani Khan.Ḥusain Ḥaqqānī, Pakistan: between Mosque and Military (Carnegie Endowment, 2005), pp. 111, 112
In April 1976, and again in October, Jilani sent reports to Bhutto which recommended the holding of fresh elections sooner rather than later, and Bhutto agreed with this advice.Ḥaqqānī (2005), p. 114 The 1977 general election had been expected in the second half of the year, but on 7 January Bhutto announced that the election would be held on 7 March.Surendra Nath Kaushik, Pakistan under Bhutto's leadership (1985), p. 259: "Bhutto stated in the National Assembly on January 7, 1977 that general elections in Pakistan would be held on March 7, 1977." When he was later awaiting execution, Bhutto hinted that he might have been trapped in a conspiracy.
Public life In October 1977, a few months after Zia-ul-Haq's "Operation Fair Play" coup d'état had removed Bhutto and his government from office, with Zia himself becoming Chief Martial Law Administrator, Jilani joined Zia's government as Secretary General at the Ministry of Defence. In February 1979, he led a Military Goodwill Delegation to the People's Republic of China, where he had discussions with Chairman Hua Guofeng and Vice Premier Li Xiannian.Peter Cheng, Chronology of the People's Republic of China, 1970–1979 (Scarecrow Press, 1986), p. 486Beijing Review, vol. 22, no. 7, dated 16 February 1979, p. 142 Jilani remained at the Ministry of Defence until 1 May 1980, when he was appointed to succeed General Sawar Khan as Governor of the Punjab Province, a powerful post which he retained until the end of the Military administration in December 1985.Punjab Assembly, 1988–90 (Punjab Provincial Assembly, 1990), p. 27: "19. Lt. General Ghulam Jilani Khan 1-5-1980 30-12-1985"
Unlike Zia-ul-Haq, Jilani was not particularly pietistic in his private life.Ḥaqqānī (2005), p. 112 In political life, he became well known for his conviction that most of Pakistan's political troubles were due to feudal influences, which he was anxious to weaken. He was suspicious of most politicians from rural areas, so he attempted to encourage and promote new urban leaders. Among these was Nawaz Sharif, an industrialist to whom Jilani gave his first political appointment, as Finance Minister in the Punjab provincial government. In 1985 he nominated Sharif as Chief Minister of the Punjab, and Sharif went on to become Prime Minister of Pakistan.Aminullah Chaudry, 'The Army in Pakistan's Politics' in Hijacking from the Ground: The Bizarre Story of PK 805 (2009), p. 14
When the Chinese premier Zhao Ziyang visited Pakistan for talks in June 1981 it was Jillani who greeted him at Lahore airport.Daily Report: People's Republic of China, issues 104–114 (United States Foreign Broadcast Information Service, 1981), p. 61 On 31 July 1981 an express train from Karachi to Peshawar crashed near Bahawalpur with more than thirty dead, and Jilani announced the same day that he suspected sabotage.Hasan Akhtar, 'Sabotage may have caused rail crash which killed 30' in The Times, issue 60995 dated 1 August 1981, p. 5, col. A In 1983 Jilani issued a directive which created the Marghzar College for Women of the University of Gujrat.Marghzar College for Women at uog.edu.pk, Retrieved 24 March 2012 In January 1984, as Governor of the Punjab, Jilani was concerned by intelligence that refugees from Afghanistan were buying land in Pakistan and gave instructions to his district administrators to prevent such sales.Michael Hamlyn & Hasan Akhtar, Fifth year of Afghan war: Kabul security fails to stop guerrillas in The Times, issue 61729 dated 4 January 1984, p. 5, col. A On 30 December 1985 he stood down as Governor of the Punjab, to be succeeded by Makhdoom Muhammad Sajjad Hussain Qureshi.
Retirement In retirement, Jilani took up the cause of the proposed new independent Chand Bagh School, to be a Pakistani boarding school inspired by his own alma mater, the Doon School. After several years of effort, he succeeded in founding the new school, which opened at Muridke in September 1998.Nauman Tasleem, Punjab govt donates Rs 60m to an elite school from Pakistan Today dated 17 June 2011 online at pakistantoday.com.pk, Retrieved 24 March 2012
Jillani occasionally wrote on military subjects, and on 5 June 1999, not long before his death, the newspaper Pakistan published an article under his name which analysed the conflict in Kashmir in terms of the region's strategic roads.Summary of world broadcasts: Asia, Pacific, issues 3549–3561 (British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring Service, 1999), p. A-4
Legacy
Ghulam Jilani Khan is honoured every year at the Chand Bagh School's Founder's Day celebrations. At the ninth such occasion, on 26 February 2011, the main speaker was Yousaf Raza Gillani, Prime Minister of Pakistan, who said
Jilani's son Lt. Col. (Retd.) Dr. Usman Jilani Khan is now the president of the Chand Bagh Foundation.
Awards and decorations
Hilal-e-Imtiaz (Military)
(Crescent of Excellence)Sitara-e-Basalat (Star of Good Conduct)Tamgha-e-Diffa (General Service Medal)
Kashmir 1964/65 War ClaspSitara-e-Harb 1971 War (War Star 1971)Tamgha-e-Jang 1965 War (War Medal 1965)Tamgha-e-Jang 1971 War (War Medal 1971)Pakistan Tamgha (Pakistan Medal)
1947Tamgha-e-Sad Saala Jashan-e- Wiladat-e-Quaid-e-Azam
(100th Birth Anniversary of
Muhammad Ali Jinnah)
1976Tamgha-e-Jamhuria (Republic Commemoration Medal)
1956Hijri Tamgha (Hijri Medal)
19791939-1945 StarBurma StarWar Medal1939-1945General Service Medal World War 2
(Awarded in 1945)
British India decorations Imperial Awards1939–1945 StarBurma StarWar Medal 1939–1945Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal