Ali Jan Aurakzai

Aurakzai was the leading army general who led the Pakistan combatant forces in response to American invasion of Afghanistan as an aftermath of the terrorist attacks in the United States. After retiring from the military he was elevated as the governor of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa of Pakistan, from May 2006 until his resignation in January 2008.

In December 2003, he led the XI Corps and several supported administrative divisions of the XII Corps. He served as the principal commander of the Pakistan's Western Military Command, and had supervised the Pakistan Army's quick deployment in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Under his command, the military saw the action Battle of Wana which concluded with Pakistani success.

In April 1999, he was promoted to Lieutenant General and shifted as Adjutant General (AG) to the GHQ. In October 2001, he was made Corps commander of the XI Corps and served as the Commander of the Western Military Command. During his military career, he was the leading and most experienced general who served under the Musharraf Administration. Following the collapse of Taliban regime in Afghanistan, Aurakzai was made the commander of Western Military Command. As commander, he oversaw the extensive military operations led by the United States special operations forces. He responded with deploying hundreds of Mountaineering and Infantry battalions to guard the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, many of whom were redeployed as a result of the 2001 Indian Parliament attack.

As Major General, Aurakzai later served as the Commander FCNA in Gilgit. In 1998, still as Major-General, he was the Vice Chief of General Staff at the GHQ. Court-martial Lieutenant-General Ziauddin Butt held Aurakzai, responsible for coup d'état against Former Prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

Passing out from Pakistan Military Academy with the 38th PMA Long Course, he was commissioned as a Second lieutenant in 1967 in the 14th Battalion of the Frontier Force Regiment. As Lieutenant, Aurakzai had led a Guerrilla company during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. In 1976 as a Major, he served as the Forward observer in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. In 1983, he served as the Aerial observer and intelligence observer in the Pakistan's western border. He is a graduate of Command and Staff College, and was posted in Generals Headquarter (GHQ) in 1985. He served there as an intelligence analyst for the Pakistan Army. Throughout the 1980s, Aurakzai had served as an intelligence and military advisor at The GHQ.