Ghulam Jilani Khan

Who is Ghulam Jilani Khan?

Lieutenant-General Ghulam Jilani Khan, Urdu: غلام جيلانى خان‎, more widely known as Ghulam Jillani, was a high-ranking general officer in the Pakistan Army who served as the fourteenth Governor of Punjab Province and eleventh Defence Secretary of Pakistan in the military government of President General Zia-ul-Haq.

Jillani was a junior officer in the Indian Army and served with distinction in the Second World War, then with the Partition of India of 1947 opted for Pakistan and took a leave of absence to join the fighting in Kashmir as an irregular. He joined the Military Intelligence Corps and commanded field operations in the 1965 and 1971 wars against India. In 1971 he assumed the directorship of the Directorate-General for Inter-Services Intelligence. After six years there, he assisted General Zia in the operation code-named Fair Play to remove Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, subsequently joining Zia's military administration as Secretary General at the Ministry of Defence. In 1980 he was appointed martial law administrator and Governor of the Punjab Province, which he governed until 1985.

In retirement he was the principal Founder of Chand Bagh School.