K.M. Arif

General K.M. Arif (full name: Khalid Mehmood Arif) is the former vice chief of army staff of the Pakistan Army who worked under the army chief and President General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. He was a close Zia associate and worked as his adviser in the capacity of Chief of Staff (COS) from 1977 to 1984. Zia's next COS was Lt. General Syed Refaqat who stayed till Zia's death in the 1988 plane crash. In March 1984, Arif was promoted to a full general and was made the vice chief of army staff in place of General Sawar Khan who was due for retirement. He held on to this post for three years, after which he was himself replaced by General Mirza Aslam Beg in March 1987.

According to Lt. General F.A. Chishti, the former Rawalpindi Corps commander who helped General Zia overthrow PM Bhutto in 1977 military coup; "Gen. Zia was lucky to have Maj. Gen. Arif as his life long confidante. He had experience as a Martial Law Officer during Yahya's regime and handled matters efficiently." [Shahid Javed Burki. [http://books.google.com/books?id=T0qwWSbboAAC&pg=PA68&lpg=PA68&dq=chishti+chief+of+staff+zia&source=web&ots=McwodsoimA&sig=XmPx2hzCHTdSV5GikhQ0VZgS41A&hl=en "Pakistan: Fifty Years of Nationhood (Westview Publishers, 1999)"] ]

Arif was a refugee from eastern Punjab who immigrated to Pakistan after independence. He is the author of much famed book "Khaki Shadows". [Pakistan under Zia, 1977-1988 By Shahid Javed Burki Asian Survey, Vol. 28, No. 10 (Oct., 1988), pp. 1082-1100]

Arif was born in 1930 and joined the Pakistan Army in 1949 as a lieutenant in the Armour Branch. Arif participated in the Indo-Pakistan wars of 1965 and 1971, earning a decoration in the former. For his services, he was awarded the Nishan-i-Imtiaz and the Sitara-i-Basalat. As a four-star general and Vice Chief of Army Staff, Arif was the de facto Commander of the Pakistan Army until his retirement in 1987. Currently, he is Chairman of the Pakistan Security and Development Association, a non-government and autonomous research body. He is also a prolific writer, contributing articles to national newspapers, and is well known for his first book Working with Zia, published by Oxford University Press, and for his anthologies of Urdu poetry.

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