Sahabzada Yaqub Khan

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Sahabzada Yaqub Ali Khan
Sahabzada Yaqub Ali Khan

Lieutenant General (retd) Sahabzada Yaqub Ali Khan (born 23 December 1920) was the international face of Pakistan for as many as three decades. He served as Foreign Minister of Pakistan from 1982 to 1991 during the dying days of Cold War and then caretaker Foreign Minister from 1996 to 1997. Before that, he was Pakistan Ambassador to United States, then Soviet Union and France from 1972 to 1982. He was a central player in the UN negotiations to end the Soviet involvement in Afghanistan.

He was later Pakistan's UN Representative. He also served as the UN's point man in negotiating an end to the Civil War in Nicaragua.

Sahabzada Yaqub Khan is a member of the erstwhile royal Afghan Pashtun Rohilla family of Rampur, India. Sahabzada Yaqub Khan enjoyed a distinguished career in the Pakistani Army that began before Pakistani independence. Rising to the rank Lieutenant General, Yaqub Khan served as Chief of General Staff, Commander Eastern Command, and briefly after the resignation of Vice Admiral S.M. Ahsan, Governor of East Pakistan.

On retiring from the Army he embarked on a career as a diplomat, serving as Ambassador to France, the United States and Soviet Union from 1972 to 1982. Since 1982 he served as Foreign Minister under seven different governments. Then from 1992 until 1997 Yaqub Khan was the United Nations Secretary General's Special Representative for the Western Sahara.

Sahabzada Yaqub Khan is the founding chairman of the Aga Khan University Board of Trustees, which he chaired for almost two decades until his retirement in 2001.[1] He was a commissioner in the now retired Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict. [2]

Sahabzada Yaqub Khan is married to Begum Tuba Khaleeli, of the prominent Iranian Khaleeli family of Calcutta, and has two sons, Samad and Najib.

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Military offices
Preceded by
Major General Sher Bahadur
Chief of General Staff
1966 - 1969
Succeeded by
Major General Gul Hassan Khan
Political offices
Preceded by
Major General Muzaffaruddin
Martial Law Administrator, Zone B (East Pakistan)
23 August 1969 - 6 March 1971
Succeeded by
Lt General Tikka Khan
Preceded by
Agha Shahi
Foreign Minister of Pakistan
21 March 1982 - 20 March 1991
Succeeded by
Siddique Khan Kanju (State Minister)
Preceded by
Asif Ahmad Ali
Foreign Minister of Pakistan (caretaker)
5 November 1996 - 17 February 1997
Succeeded by
Gohar Ayub Khan
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by
Sultan Muhammad Khan
Pakistan Ambassador to the United States
December 1973 - January 1979
Succeeded by
Sultan Muhammad Khan