Kamal Matinuddin

Kamal Matinuddin was born in 1926 in what was then British India.[1] He obtained his higher education from the University of Lucknow, before enrolling into the Indian Military Academy in 1946.[3]

Following Pakistan's independence in 1947, Matinuddin was commissioned as a gunner in the 7th Field Regiment of the Royal Pakistan Artillery. He participated in the First Kashmir War, shelling enemy positions in the Bhimber sector.[4][5] He studied at the Canadian Army Command and Staff College in Kingston, graduating in 1957.[6][7] During his 34-year long service in the military,[4] Matinuddin held various staff, instruction and command-related appointments, including heading an infantry division and assuming responsibility for operational planning as the Director General Joint Staff.[7][8][9] He witnessed action in the Second Kashmir War and the 1971 War.[7][8][10] In 1981, Matinuddin retired as a lieutenant-general from the Pakistan Army.[3][4]

After retiring from the army, Matinuddin joined the Foreign Service and was appointed as Pakistan's ambassador to Thailand.[4][11] He also served as Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok.[3]

Upon returning to Pakistan, Matinuddin became the director-general of the Islamabad-based think tank Institute of Strategic Studies.[4][12][13] In his book Tragedy of Errors (1994), Matinuddin addressed, studied and wrote an eyewitness account of the political differences and causes which underpinned the secession of East Pakistan.[10][14][15][16] The book was translated by Muhammad Sheraz Dasti into Urdu and republished in 2018 as Naslon Ne Sazaa Payi.[17] As a defence analyst,[18] he wrote extensively on the conflict in Afghanistan[13][19][20] and on Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme.[21]

• Leo E. Rose; Kamal Matinuddin (1989). Beyond Afghanistan: The Emerging U.S.–Pakistan Relations. Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California. ISBN 978-1-55729-017-5.
• Kamal Matinuddin (1991). Power Struggle in the Hindu Kush: Afghanistan 1978–1991. Wajidalis.
• Kamal Matinuddin (1994). Tragedy of Errors: East Pakistan Crisis, 1968–1971. Wajidalis. ISBN 978-969-8031-19-0.
• Kamal Matinuddin (1999). The Taliban Phenomenon: Afghanistan 1994–1997. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-579274-4.
• Kamal Matinuddin (2002). The Nuclearization of South Asia. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-579416-8.

Matinuddin died on 5 February 2017 at the Combined Military Hospital in Rawalpindi, aged 90 or 91.[1] His funeral was held at the city's Race Course Ground.[2]