K.M. Azhar Khan

Khwaja Mohammad Azhar Khan
7th Governor of North-West Frontier Province
In office 1 July 1970 – 23 December 1971
President	Agha Yahya Khan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
Preceded by	Qurban Ali Khan
Succeeded by	Hayat Mohammad Khan Sherpao
Personal details
Born	January 1918 Aligarh, British India
Died	29 October 2006 Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
Military service
Allegiance	British India  Pakistan
Service/branch	British Indian Army  Pakistan Army
Years of service	1942–1971
Rank	Lieutenant General
Unit	Pakistan Army
Commands	Pakistan Army General Infantry
Battles/wars	Burma Campaign World War II Indo-Pakistani War of 1947 Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 Indo-Pakistani War of 1971

Lieutenant General Khwaja Mohammad Azhar Khan (Urdu: خواجہ محمد اظہر خان‎) (usually shortened to K.M. Azhar) (1918 – 29 October 2006) was the chairman of the high-powered committee of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan and a former governor of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Early life

Lt Gen Azhar was born in Saugar, India in 1918 into the (Mian Sheikh Darvesh) Waziris and received education in Lahore and then Aligarh. He started his career as a doctor after receiving education at the King Edward Medical College. He attended the historic meeting of the All-India Muslim League in which the Lahore Resolution was adopted in 1940. Responding to a call of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah exhorting the youth to join the armed forces, he left the medical profession and got commission in the armed forces in 1942.

Military career

He fought on the Burma front during the Second World War and participated in the wars against India on the Kashmir front in 1947 and at Rann of Kutch in 1965.

He defeated one division of the Indian Army with the help of only two battalions during the 1965 War and conquered 1,300 square miles (3,400 km²) area in Rajasthan and captured the Munabao Railway Station along with a large number of Indian soldiers and three tanks.

He was injured while commanding Pakistani forces on the Rajasthan front in 1971 during his tenure as the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa governor.

Sports chairman

He also served as president of the Pakistan Hockey Federation in 1970 before retirement in 1972 and was the first chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board from 1978 to 1980.

Death

K.M. Azhar died at the Combined Military Hospital in Lahore on 29 October 2006 when he was admitted to the hospital after receiving a head injury while performing ablution for prayers. He was 88 and was survived by five sons and two daughters; four of the sons being graduates of Cadet College Hasan Abdal.

Upon his death in his remembrance his Waziri tribe named a mountain peak after him in Kaniguram Village Kaniguram of South Waziristan.

External links

• Lt Gen K.M. Azhar passes away