General Sawar Khan dies at 99

The funeral prayer of Gen Sawar Khan (retired), former Vice Chief of Army Staff was offered at Army Graveyard Rawalpindi on Wednesday, reported the 24NewsHD TV channel.

Gen Asim Munir, Chief of Army Staff, and a large number of civil and military officials including senior retired Army officers and relatives of the deceased attended the funeral.

General Sawar Khan was a four-star general of the Pakistan Army who also remained the governor of Punjab during the era of Gen Zia-ul-Haq when Zia was simultaneously the Chief of Army Staff and the President.

Sawar Khan was born in December 1, 1924 in Rawalpindi region. He was commissioned before the independence of Pakistan in 1946 into the Indian Army's Corps of Artillery. He later opted for the Pakistan Army in 1947. He was promoted to Lt General on 24 March 1976. He commanded Peshawar as well as Lahore's corps.

General Sawar was retired from the army in March 1984 after completing the four-year term as deputy army chief.

He was a professional soldier and hailed from the Potohar plateau of north Punjab, which had been a traditional recruitment area for the British and Pakistani armies.