Syed Shahid Hamid


Syed Shahid Hamid HJ was a two-star general in the Pakistan Army, and the first Director-General of Inter-Services Intelligence.
Hamid was the first Master General of Ordnance (MGO) of the Pakistan Army before establishing the ISI in 1948. He also authored numerous books, most notably Disastrous Twilight - A Personal Record of the Partition of India 1946-1947, an eyewitness account of being on the staff of the last British Commander in Chief of the Indian Army, Field Marshal Sir Claude Auchinleck.
He was the grandfather of the British journalist, Mishal Husain.

Early life

Hamid was born to a Sayyid family in British India. He went to school at the Colvin Taluqdar school in 1923 before going to the Aligarh Muslim University. He was accepted into the Royal Military College Sandhurst in 1932. He received a commission onto the Unattached List, Indian Army on 1 February 1934. He arrived in India on 16 February 1934 and was shortly afterwards attached to the 2nd battalion of the Prince of Wales Volunteers regiment at Allahabad.
On 12 March 1935, he was admitted into the Indian Army and was posted to the 3rd Cavalry at Meerut. His seniority as a Second Lieutenant was later antedated to on 31 August 1933. He was attached to the Royal Indian Army Service Corps in early 1940 and later permanently transferred. He served in Kohat, Fort Sandeman, and Risalpur. He was promoted to Lieutenant on 30 November 1935 and to Captain on 31 August 1941.

Military career

During the Second World War, he fought on the Burmese front, where his eyes were badly injured. He retreated from Rangoon and was evacuated from Shewbo to Calcutta. In 1943, after being declared fit for duty, he became a Senior Instructor at the Command and Staff College in Quetta. Field Marshal Claude Auchinleck appointed Hamid his Private Secretary on 28 March 1946 and Hamid played an influential role in the decision making by Auchinleck.
Shahid Hamid was an inside player in the crucial months leading up to the Partition of India in 1947.
He also worked both with Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan during the early years of ISI in Pakistan.
After one such intelligence briefing by Syed Shahid Hamid:

"Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan addressed a public rally in which he made his famous gesture of showing his clenched fist to India. His clenched fist galvanized the nation and became a symbol of its defiance. Nehru was compelled to back down, claiming that India never had any war-like intentions and he also offered to sign a 'No War' pact with Pakistan. In those early years of Pakistan, it was probably the ISI's finest hour".

Founding Inter-Services Intelligence

When Pakistan was created, he opted to join the Pakistan Army. As a Lieutenant-Colonel in 1948, he set up the Inter Services Intelligence from a small office in Karachi. Lieutenant-Colonel Hamid set up the ISI along with former British Indian Army Major General Sir Robert Cawthome, then Deputy Chief of Staff of the Pakistan Army. The Australian-born Cawthorne succeeded Hamid as head of the ISI after Lieutenant-Colonel Hamid's promotion.

Post-ISI Senior appointments

In 1978, he was summoned back to public life by President Zia ul-Haq, and served as a federal cabinet minister for three years.

Post-retirement

Shahid Hamid was deeply interested in education, and helped found and became a patron of the Aligarh Old Boys Association and established Sir Syed School and Sir Syed Science College for boys and girls at Tipu Road, Rawalpindi. After traveling across Pakistan's mountainous Northern Areas, he helped open up the region for local people and tourists by supporting road projects and writing books and articles in which he described the beauty of the area. For the last 20 years of his life, he wrote and researched books. He wrote one of the early books on Hunza after first visiting in 1954 when the valley was only accessible on horseback or on foot. Other books covered the politics of the Pakistan Movement, and the Pakistani army, as well as an autobiography.