Iftikhar Khan

Major General Muhammed Iftikhar Khan (10 January 1907 – 13 December 1949) was an officer of the British Indian Army and later Pakistan Army. He was the strongest contender[2] to succeed General Douglas Gracey as the Commander-in-Chief, but unfortunately was killed in a plane crash before he took office.[3]

Not to be confused with Iftikhar Ali Khan (general).

Muhammad Iftikhar Khan
Iftikhar Khan's official portrait
Nickname(s)Ifti[1]
AllegiancePakistan
Service/branch
Years of service1929–1949
RankMajor General
Commands held
Battles/wars
Relations

Early life

Iftikhar Khan belonged to Punjabi Minhas Rajput clan of Chakwal. His father was Ressaidar Raja Fazal Dad Khan, who was a Zamindar, or landowner, and had served as a Viceroy's Commissioned Officer with a British Indian Army cavalry unit. Iftikhar had nine brothers and four sisters. Six, including Iftikhar, were in the army, including Major General Muhammed Akbar Khan, Major General Muhammad Anwar Khan, Brigadier Muhammad Afzal, Brigadier Muhammed Zafar Khan, and Brigadier Muhammad Yusuf Khan. The three other brothers Baqir Khan, Tahir Khan, and Masud Khan chose civilian careers.[4]

Career

After attending the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, on 29 August 1929 Iftikhar Khan was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant on the Unattached List for the Indian Army.[5] He then spent a year on attachment to the 2nd battalion of the Manchester Regiment.[6]

British Indian Army

Khan transferred to the Indian Army on 16 October 1930 and was posted to the 7th Light Cavalry.[7] He was promoted to Lieutenant on 29 November 1931.[8] He then transferred to the 3rd Cavalry on 1 October 1932, a regiment which was in the process of being Indianised.[9] He was promoted to Captain on 29 August 1938 and served as regimental Quartermaster from 1 August 1937 to 18 April 1938, then as regimental Adjutant from 19 April 1938 to 5 August 1940.[10][11][12] He was appointed a Staff Captain on 7 August 1940.[13][14][15]

From 17 December 1941, Khan was attached to the No. 2 Indian Armoured Corps Training Center.[16] By January 1943, he was a General Staff Officer Grade 2 on the staff of Headquarters Ceylon Army Command.[17]

By July 1943 he was a local Lieutenant Colonel and a General Staff Officer Grade 2 at the Command and Staff College, Quetta.[18] He was still in this role in April 1944.[19]

In early 1945 he was a temporary Major and second in command of the 45th Cavalry, a war raised armoured unit then serving in Burma, later posted to the 7th Light Cavalry as temporary Major and second in command.[20]

He was promoted to Major on 29 August 1946. He commanded the 7th Light Cavalry in Japan as part of the occupation forces from September to December 1946.[21]

Pakistani Army

On the Partition of India and independence of Pakistan in August 1947, Khan opted to join the new Pakistan Army. He was quickly promoted to Major General and on 1 January 1948 assumed the command of the 10th Division.[22]

Khan had been nominated to become the first local Commander in Chief (C-in-C) of the Pakistan Army after General Douglas David Gracey's retirement.[22] He was senior to later Commander-in-Chief and dictator Ayub Khan.[23]

In Ayub Khan's book, "Friends, not masters", he says "the British were backing Major General Iftikhar and that he was short tempered and difficult to get on with."[24]

Death

Before Khan could take up his new post, on 13 December 1949, at 10pm PST, he was killed, along with Brigadier Sher Khan and 24 others, in a Pakistan Airways Dakota plane crash.[25][26]

The plane was flying from Lahore to Karachi when it crashed at Karo Jabal, near Malmari Jalalji Village, Thatta, 102 kilometers from Karachi and several miles away from the nearest rescue base in Jungshahi.[26]

Khan was on the way to Karachi to proceed to England for a course at the Imperial Defence College (IDC).[26]

References
  1. "A 1949 Air Crash that may have Changed Pakistan's History". 27 December 2019.
  2. "A 1949 Air Crash that may have Changed Pakistan's History". 27 December 2019.
  3. Jalal, Struggle for Pakistan 2014, p. 79.
  4. Linda B. Hopkins, False Self: The Life of Masud Khan
  5. The London Gazette, 30 August 1929, page 5646
  6. July 1930 Indian Army List
  7. January 1931 Indian Army List
  8. April 1934 Indian Army List
  9. April 1934 Indian Army List
  10. October 1937 Indian Army List
  11. July 1940 Indian Army List
  12. January 1941 Indian Army List
  13. War services of British and Indian officer of the Indian Army 1941
  14. January 1941 Indian Army List
  15. July 1941 Indian Army List
  16. April 1942 Indian Army List
  17. January 1943 Indian Army List
  18. July 1943 Indian Army List
  19. April 1944 Indian Army List
  20. October 1945 Indian Army List
  21. We Lead. 7th Light Cavalry 1784-1990 Edited by Lt-Col C. L. Proudfoot
  22. Major-General Shaukat Riza, The Pakistan Army 1947-49, p. 183
  23. Shaukat Hyat Khan, Memoirs Lahore, 1993, np
  24. Abbas, Hassan (2015), Pakistan's Drift into Extremism: Allah, the Army, and America's War on Terror: Allah, the Army, and America's War on Terror, Taylor & Francis, ISBN 978-1-317-46327-6
  25. "Air tragedies that struck Pakistan's armed forces".
  26. Sydney Morning Herald Wednesday 14 December 1949

Bibliography

Further reading
  • Barua, Pradeep. The Army Officer Corps and Military Modernisation in Later Colonial India
  • Sharma, Gautam. Nationalisation of the Indian Army
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