RAWALPINDI, March 28: Gen Tikka Khan (Rtd), former chief of the army staff, died here on Thursday, at CMH Rawalpindi, after a protracted illness. He was 87.

He was laid to rest with full military honour, in the army graveyard.

Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Gen Muhammad Aziz Khan, Vice Chief of Army Staff Gen Muhammad Yousaf Khan and other senior military and civil officials attended the funeral.

Tikka Khan, also PPP former secretary-general, is survived by three sons and two daughters.

Mr Khan, a graduate from the Indian Military Academy Dera Doon, was born in 1915 in village Jochha Mamdot of tehsil Kahuta, and was commissioned in 1939. During his military career, he served on various staff, command and instructional positions.

Gen Khan was promoted to the rank of Major-General in 1962, made the Lieutenant-General in 1969, and elevated to the rank of General and appointed as the army chief in 1972.

Following the retirement from the army in 1974, he joined the PPP in 1976, after going through two-year constitutional silence. In her first tenure, Benazir Bhutto made him Punjab governor in 1988.

BENAZIR CONDOLES: The former prime minister and chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party, Benazir Bhutto, has condoled the death of Tikka Khan.

In a message addressed to his son Col Khalid Masud, the former prime minister paid glowing tributes to late Tikka Khan, and described him as a person who “rose to the highest offices of this country due to his hard work and respect for the rule of law”.