Five Chiefs of General Staff served as head of Pakistan Army in 64 years

LAHORE: Lt General Zubair Mahmood Hayat is the 32nd Chief of the General Staff of Pakistan Army since 1950, when Major General Akbar Khan was first appointed to this slot, which is considered as the senior most position after the post of the Chief of the Army Staff, research conducted by the Jang Group and Geo Television Network reveals.
Lt General Zubair Hayat had also served as Bahawalpur Corps Commander and Director-General of the Strategic Plans Division during his distinguished career.
He comes from a family of illustrious soldiers, as does the incumbent Pakistan Army Chief General Raheel Sharif.
According to the Indian Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, which claims to be one of the premier research institutes and think tanks on South Asian defence affairs, General Zubair Hayat’s father Mohammad Aslam Hayat had also retired as a Major General and his two brothers—Umer Hayat and Ahmed Hayat—have also served as 2-star Generals—-a world record of sorts!
As Director-General of the Strategic Plans Division, Lt Gen Zubair Hayat had supervised Pakistan’s nuclear and missile programme.He was commissioned in artillery regiment of Pakistan Army in early 1980s.
He has been Chief of Staff to a Corps and is a graduate of Command and Staff College, the prestigious Camberley Staff College at Surrey (England) and the reputed National Defence University in Islamabad.
Widely deemed to be among the most important and coveted positions within the military, the importance of this portfolio of CGS can be gauged from the fact that out of the 31 Chiefs of the General Staff (prior to Lt General Zubair Mahmood Hayat), some five Generals had gone on to assume charge as Pakistan’s Army’s top bosses (Commander-in-Chief and Chief of the Army Staff).
These 5 Chiefs of the General Staff who have till date gone on to serve as head of the Pakistan Army are:General Yahya Khan (he was the third Pakistani President and Second Martial Law Administrator. General Yahya appointed as Commander-in-Chief of Pakistan Army in March 1966).
General Gul Hassan Khan (he was the last Army Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army from December 20, 1971 to March 3, 1972. Gul Hassan Khan had the shortest tenure as Pakistan Army’s Commander-in-Chief. He was deposed by the then president Zulfikar Ali Bhutto after the Hamoodu Rahman Commission, led by the then Pakistani Chief Justice Hamoodur Rahman, had recommended his deposal. Following a trial, General Gul Hassan Khan was immediately retired from the Army and further relieved from any benefits given to the retired officers).
General Mirza Aslam Beg (his tenure as country’s Ninth Army Chief had witnessed Benazir Bhutto as being elected Prime Minister in November 1988, and the restoration of democracy and the civilian control of the military in the country. He was summoned to the Supreme