Zahid Ali Akbar Khan was born in Jalandhar, Punjab in British India, in 1933.: 27 [5]: 157 [7] His grandfather was commissioned in the 7 Haryana Lancers regiment while his father was a well-known lawyer in Jalandhar.[8]
On 7 July 1978, Brig. Akbar was temporarily promoted to the two-star rank army general as it was felt that the title "general" would hold more sway with the academic scientists working on the confidential projects.[15] However, upon his promotion, Akbar was transferred away from ERL on martial law administrative duty rather than appointed as Director General at ERL. Similarly in 1979 Akbar was not awarded the prestigious HI(M) medal alongside fellow 2 star General S A Nawab who was also working on the ERL project with Akbar. Eventually, Akbar became in-charge of ERL after he made Lt General and earned his Hilal i Imtiaz (Military) in the 1980s under President General Zia ul Haq. Earlier in his career, he had also worked as a field officer and a civil engineer at ERL. However, to suggest that as a field officer in the Army, with no foreign purchasing experience he was made responsible for establishing ERL in 1974, under Ghulam Ishaq Khan without being given a General officer rank, without a Director General appointment and without being awarded prestigious medals is difficult to imagine.
Brig. Akbar worked extremely closely with PAEC chairmanMunir Ahmad Khan to hold discussion on constructing the discuss the weapon-testing laboratories under the control environment, and was said to be extremely impressed with the breadth of Munir Khan's knowledge ranging from engineering to theoretical physics, and Khan's comprehensive understanding of the military affairs in the international politics.: 156–157 [18] After meeting with PresidentZia-ul-Haq, Brig. Akbar recommended and lobbied for Munir Ahmad Khan's leadership in the program as Brig. Akbar noted to President Zia that Munir Khan had a breadth of knowledge of understanding the military affairs and knew the broad knowledge would be vital in an interdisciplinary project that would involve not just physics, but chemistry, metallurgy, ordnance, mathematics, and engineering, which he found lacking in other civilian scientists.: 157 [18]
After the departure of Mubashir Hassan, Major General Akbar formed the committee that was assigned for meeting the needs for the classified projects and to supervise the financial funding, concerning the development of centrifuge facilities at Kahuta.[17]
On foreign affairs, Lieutenant general Akbar assisted President Zia on intelligence matters to deftly neutralized international pressure by tagging Pakistan's atomic bomb programme to the aggressive designs of neighboring India's nuclear program.[17] He met with Munir Khan and Agha Shahi, then-Foreign Minister, drew a five-point proposal as a practical rejoinder to world pressure on Pakistan to sign the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty (NPT)— the points including the renouncing of the use of nuclear weapons.[17]
Lieutenant general Akbar oversaw the control over the nuclear infrastructure from military to civilian hands when Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission took control over the program to ensure the safety and prevention of nuclear accidents.: 160–161 [12]
Lieutenant general J.D. Khan, his predecessor, gave him a detailed briefing about this operational plan and particularly stressed the importance of intelligence keeping a watch on Indian moves beyond Leh in Indian-controlled Kashmir.: xxxi [20] He became involved in many operations that were launched under then command of then-Brig.Pervez Musharraf working as his subordinate.[21]
In 1989, Lieutenant general Akbar was posted back at the DESTO, eventually taking over the directorship, where he became involved in classified and sensitive projects of the military.[25] He evaluated the flight performance of the PAC Super Mushshak aircraft that were being designed and built at the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex.[26]
He led DESTO's project in classified black projects to compete with missile gap with India, after the country test firing the short-range missile.: 73 [25] His tenure eventually ended when most projects were moved to KRL and SRC, and realized that the postwar military and the civilian governments would not be given any assignment to him and as approaching in importance the one he had held the program in Kahuta.: 264 [22] In 1990, he completed his tenure and eventually retired from the military, ending his 40-year long military service.[3]
Akbar was named in the Suisse Secrets leaks in February 2022. The leaked bank records revealed that Akbar had $11.8 million in a Credit Suisse account.[28]
^ abcKhan, DEng, Dr. Abdul Qadeer (29 July 2009). "Bhutto, GIK and Kahuta". thenews.com.pk. Islamabad: AQ Khan on News International. News International. Retrieved 26 September 2017.
^Khan, Chairman Wapda and PCB, Gen. (retd.) Zahid Ali Akbar (1992). Power Demand Projections now 8400 MW. Economic Review. pp. 15, 34, 43. Retrieved 2 October 2010.
^Swami, Praveen (23 February 2022). "Whiff of corruption as 'Gang of Four' generals from Zia's Pakistan linked to Swiss bank accounts". ThePrint. Retrieved 4 September 2023. Lt Gen. Zahid's grandfather, a Pakistani source familiar with the family told ThePrint, was commissioned in the 7 Haryana Lancers regiment, serving for a time as aide-de-camp to the Viceroy of India. The general's father was a well-known lawyer in Jalandhar, who moved to Pakistan after Partition.
^NDU. "1971 AFWC alumni". National Defence University (NDU); Armed Forces War College. Archived from the original on 16 April 2013. Retrieved 21 March 2013.
^Khan, DEng, Abdul Qadeer (16 July 2012). "Torch-bearers". The News International, 16 July 2012 (in English and Urdu). Islamabad, Islamabad Capital Venue. The News International. p. 1. Retrieved 16 July 2012. It all started in the '70s at the same time our nuclear enrichment and weapons programme began. We had acquired the Kahuta area. Brigadier Zahid had carefully scrutinized the papers of many contractors and had decided to give the contract of some very important buildings to defence contractor, HAKAS.
^ abcdefghChaudhri, M.A. (May 1998). "Separating Myth from Reality". Defence Journal. Karachi: 2.