Gul Hassan Khan

Gul Hassan Khan (9 June 1921 – 10 October 1999) known secretly as George, was a Pakistani former three-star rank general and diplomat who served as the sixth and last Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army, from 20 December 1971 until 3 March 1972, marking the shortest tenure in the role. Gul Hassan resigned along with Air Marshal Abdur Rahim Khan, refusing President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's request to deploy their forces to suppress a police strike protesting against the government for a pay increase.

During the meeting, Bhutto initiated the discussion by saying, "Gentlemen, the country is going through one crisis after another and with the latest one being the strike by the police and for which no cooperation has been forthcoming from the army and the air force when asked for, I regret that a stage has come when we can no longer carry on like this. Therefore I am not prepared to run the government in this sort of an environment." As soon as Bhutto finished, Gul Hassan, known for his forthrightness, immediately stood up and confronted Bhutto, saying to his face, "Well that's all right Mr President but let me also make it clear that this kind of non-cooperation will continue if the demands placed on the services and especially on the army is not lawful. And as far as I am personally concerned I want to make it quite clear that I am ready to quit right now." After Gul Hassan's statement, Bhutto wore a mischievous smile and promptly handed over two file covers to Gul Hassan and Abdur Rahim Khan. Inside were resignation letters prepared for them to sign. Gul Hassan, showing contempt, threw the file back at Bhutto, who then attempted to shake his hand. The office was renamed to Chief of Army Staff and Gul Hassan was succeeded by Tikka Khan.

Throughout his career, he held the positions of Aide-de-camp (ADC) to Cameron Nicholson, General Viscount Slim, and Governor-General of Pakistan Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Directing Staff Staff College, Quetta, Commander 1 Armoured Division, Chief of General Staff, Director Military Operations, and Commander 100 Independent Armoured Brigade Group.

Notably, Gul Hassan was known for leading from the front. Once during training army officers, he wanted the artillery practice to mimic real war conditions. He had a bunker built at the target end of the Muzaffargarh range, which offered some security but was not completely safe, as a direct hit could destroy it. Despite the risk, Gul Hassan entered the bunker himself and instructed the gunners to fire with a narrow margin of error to test their training. He insisted that each artillery regiment take turns firing at the bunker to assess their skills. (Retd) Colonel EAS Bokhari writes, "Luckily the units fired perfectly - and though Gen Gul was shaken in the bunker and came out of it with a lot of dust and fear of God in him - but he was quite safe. I have never seen any General Officer do this and ask for fire on a target where he himself was located."

(Retd) Colonel Abdul Qayyum recalls that Gul Hassan was "short on strategic vision," "but he was a field commander par excellence - by our standards, at any rate. He almost equaled Patton in linguistic matters, but he was our version of Robert E. Lee in the field. Gul Hassan was warm, sincere, forthright, without a trace of cant or deceit, wholly committed to his command, bold and generous of spirit."