Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan, (February 4, 1917 – August 10,
1980) was the third President of Pakistan from 1969 to 1971,
following the resignation of Ayub Khan. He had one son, Ali
Yahya and one daughter, Yasmeen Khan.
Yahya Khan was born in Chakwal,
Pakistan, in 1917 and
traces his ancestry to Persia by
way of antiquarian knowledge. His family descended from the
elite soldier class of Nader Shah, the Persian ruler who
conquered Delhi in
the 18th century. According to a number of sources, including Time
magazine, Yahya Khan was an ethnic Pashtun (Pathan).
Yahya Khan, H.Pk, HJ, S.Pk, psc joined the British
Army, and served in World War II as an officer in the 4th
Infantry Division (India). He served in Iraq, Italy, and North
Africa.
Yahya Khan was commissioned from Indian Military
Academy Dehra Dun on 15 July 1939. An infantry officer from the
4/10 Baluch Regiment, Yahya saw action during World War II in North Africa
where he was captured by the Axis Forces in June 1942 and interned in a prisoner
of war camp in Italy from where he escaped in the third attempt.
Yahya energetically started reorganising the Pakistan Army
in 1965. The post 1965 situation saw major organisational as well as technical
changes in the Pakistan Army. Till 1965 it was thought that divisions could
function effectively while getting orders directly from the army’s GHQ. This
idea failed miserably in the 1965 war and the need to have intermediate corps
headquarters in between the GHQ and the fighting combat divisions was
recognised as a foremost operational necessity after the 1965 war. In 1965 war
the Pakistan Army had only one corps headquarter (i.e. the 1st Corps
Headquarters).
Soon after the war had started the U.S. had imposed an embargo on military aid
on both India and Pakistan. This
embargo did not affect the Indian Army but produced major changes in the
Pakistan Army’s technical composition. US Secretary of State Dean
Rusk well summed it up when he said, "Well if you are going to
fight, go ahead and fight, but we’re not going to pay for it".
Pakistan
now turned to China for
military aid and the Chinese tank T-59 started replacing
the US M-47/48 tanks as the Pakistan Army’s MBT (Main
Battle Tank) from 1966. 80 tanks, the first batch of T-59s, a
low-grade version of the Russian T-54/55 series were delivered
to Pakistan
in 1965-66. The first batch was displayed in the Joint Services Day Parade on
23 March 1966. The 1965 War had proved that Pakistan Army’s tank infantry ratio
was lopsided and more infantry was required. Three more infantry divisions (9,
16 and 17 Divisions) largely equipped with Chinese equipment and popularly
referred to by the rank and file as "The China
Divisions" were raised by the beginning of 1968. Two more corps
headquarters i.e. 2nd Corps Headquarters (Jhelum-Ravi Corridor) and 4th Corps
Headquarters (Ravi-Sutlej Corridor) were raised.
Yahya Khan died in August 1980, in Rawalpindi. He died from over-indulgence from
alcohol.
