Muhammad Anwar Khan

Major General Raja Muhammad Anwar Khan HJ was the first Pakistan Army Engineer Officer and the first Muslim Engineer In Chief of the Pakistan Army.

He was the first Muslim to be a Sapper officer in the British Indian Army and its pre-partition Indian Corps of Engineers.

His Pakistan Army number was 48 (PA-48).

Maj. General M. Anwar Khan belonged to Punjabi Minhas Rajput family from Chakwal.

The Mair Minhas tribe has a long martial tradition of serving in the British India and Pakistan military.

Maj. General Muhammad Anwar Khan belonged to a family of 9 brothers and 4 sisters, of which 6 brothers were selected as officers in the British Army (Akbar, Iftikhar, Zafar, Yousaf, Afzal and Anwar).

Three brothers rose to the rank of Major General and three to the rank of Brigadiar General.

Three brothers chose civilian careers (Baqir, Tahir and Masud).

Around 1860 the family's lands and properties in the Chakwal area were confiscated by the British, under the orders of Brigadier General John Nicholson, for rising against them.

Later, General Anwar's elder uncle Raja Aurangzeb Khan made peace with the British, by seeking employment under Col. Warburton for the settlement and development of the newly irrigated agricultural lands, and the establishment of the newly planned town of Lyallpur.

Akbar Khan enlisted in the army in May 1914 and served with his father's regiment 12th Cavalry.

He was a veteran of both World Wars I and II and the first Muslim officer to join the British Indian Cavalry and served in the 5th King Edward's Own (KEO) Probyn's Horse.

Major General Muhammad Iftikhar Khan, who was educated at RIMC and Sandhurst, was commissioned in August 1929 and joined 7th Light Cavalry.

He was transferred to 3rd Cavalry when it was Indianized.

Brigadier Muhammed Zafar Khan was commissioned in 1934 and was the first non-British Indian Commander of British Indian Cavalry.

He retired as Director Remount, Veterinary & Farm Corps (RV&FC).

However, his seniority in the army was considered from 1 November 1935.

Brigadier Muhammad Yousef Khan was commissioned in 1935 and retired as Director RV&FC.

Brigadier Muhammad Afzal Khan was commissioned in 1935 and joined 16th Light Cavalry.

He later transferred to Royal Indian Army Service Corps (RIASC).

Anwar Khan was selected for the 4th batch at Indian Military Academy (IMA) Dehra Dun in February 1934, and passed out on 3 June 1936.

During Second World War, he served with the newly raised 45th Cavalry.

He was the senior most officer of the Pakistan Army and retired honorably in 1949.

He was the first British Indian officer to be appointed Instructor at the Command and Staff College Quetta, and was tipped as the first Pakistani Commander-in-Chief after General Douglas David Gracey's retirement, but died in an air crash with his wife, son and some other senior officers in 1949 at Jang Shahi.

Iftikhar was a multi-handicap polo player also.

in 1957 he promoted to Maj Gen as Engineer-in-Chief which he served as for eight years.

Upon retirement from the Army on 1 May 1965, he served as Chairman OGDC till 1969.

Maj Gen Anwar Khan spent the remainder of his retirement years in Rawalpindi, where he died on 5 February 2005.

His eldest brother, Major General Muhammed Akbar Khan (PA-1) held the honor to be the first Muslim to become a Major General in the British Indian Army.

General Anwar's father Khan Bahadur Raja Fazal Dad Khan was a Zamindar (landowner) and served as a Viceroy's Commissioned Officer with the 12th Cavalry unit of the British Indian Army.

He was also granted the title of Khan Bahadur.

Major General Muhammad.

Anwar Khan (PA-48) belonged to the martial family of Maayr-Minhas Rajputs from Chakwal – the town that was not only founded many centuries ago by his ancestors, but which also bears the name of his forefather.

Subsequently, General Anwar's father, Khan Bahadur Raja Muhammad Fazaldad Khan, served in the 12th Cavalry of the British Indian Army for 35 years, and rose to be the Indian commander.

(On his retirement Raja Fazaldad Khan became the leading horse and cattle breeder and agricultural land developer in the Lyallpur (Faisalabad)/Jaranwala and Sahiwal/Okara areas of undivided Punjab).

General Anwar's cousin Raja Muhammad Sarfraz Khan, who was the eldest son of Raja Aurangzeb Khan, helped redeem the position of the family at Chakwal, and became a prominent politician of the Muslim League and a close friend and associate of the Quaid-e-Azam and Allama Muhammad Iqbal.

Raja Sarfraz Khan was also an agriculturist par-excellence and well known for his foresight, philanthropy and socio-development work.

Out of General Anwar's nine brothers, three brothers chose civilian careers (Baqir, Tahir and Masud).

Raja Muhammad Baqir Khan, died very young as a law student at Cambridge University UK, when he met with a motorcycle accident.

Raja Tahir Raza Khan became an international lawyer, and Raja Masud Raza Khan was a psycho-analyst of international repute, and many of his books are still being used as text-books at leading universities in the UK, US and France.