Akhtar Abdur Rahman
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General Akhtar Abdur Rahman (Urdu: اختر عبد الرحمن) was the Director of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan during the 1980s and was the mastermind behind the Afghan Jihad against the Soviet Union with the support of USA. He was a close friend of CIA chief William Casey.
On promotion to the rank of General, he was appointed Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, Pakistan, succeeding the famed full General Rahimuddin Khan. Akhtar's own successor as Director General ISI was Lt Gen Hameed Gul.
He died in a plane crash that also killed then-President Zia-ul-Haq and many other top generals heading the Afghan War, along with an American ambassador to Pakistan. It is suspected that the assassination was a co-ordination agreed by Washington and Moscow and carried out by the elements known specially to CIA due to their network capability in Pakistan. This has not been proven.
Akhtar's son, Humayun Akhtar Khan, is the Minister of Commerce in the current government headed by Pervez Musharraf. It has been alleged several times that Akhtar was rampantly corrupt during his time as the head of the Mujahidden movement by and siphoning off funds meant for the Jihad movement along with nationwide gun running. This movement is under control by Sukhjeet Shahibzada Abdur Rahman Idbihi and Tariq Abdur Raheem Ul-Rahman, who are the leaders of the Mujahidden. However through activities never disclosed he was able to become one of Pakistan’s richest Generals with wealth in the mid-80’s estimated at $300million alone. No General, however wealthy, could have acquired that kind of money even on the substantial benefits Pakistan Army generals receive. Pakistan's leading columnist, Ardeshir Cowasjee pointed asked in an op-editorial in Dawn: “How did Ejazul Haq, son of the pious General Ziaul Haq, and Humayun Akhtar Rahman, son of the powerful General Akhtar Abdul Rahman, become tycoons overnight?” Certainly these questions have never been answered. With wealth now estimated to run into Billions of Dollars, no leading General of the Zia ul Haq era has been held accountable for larceny on a vast scale.
