Honorific Prefix: | Lieutenant General |
Ghulam Safdar Butt | |
Birth Date: | 1928 3, df=yes |
Birth Place: | Sukkur, Sindh, British Indian Empire, (present-day Pakistan) |
Death Place: | Lahore, Pakistan |
Placeofburial: | Cavalry Ground Graveyard, Lahore |
Nickname: | Safdar |
Birth Name: | Ghulam Safdar Butt |
Serviceyears: | 1948–1987 |
Rank: | Lieutenant General |
Servicenumber: | PA – 2725 |
Unit: | Pakistan Army Corps of Engineers |
Commands: | DG Frontier Works Organization DG Lowari Tunnel Organization Managing Director PARCO Military Engineering Service Pakistan Army Corps of Engineers |
Battles: | Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 |
Awards: | Sitara-e-Basalat Hilal-i-Imtiaz (Military) |
Laterwork: | Chairman WAPDA Chairman Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited |
Ghulam Safdar Butt (13 March 1928 – 1 May 2006) was the first three-star rank General in the Corps of engineers of the Pakistan Army. He also held the honour of being the first PhD of the Pakistan army.
He was commissioned in the Pakistan Army in 1950 after graduating from the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA). He was part of the first PMA Long Course which was the first course to graduate from the PMA that was selected, trained and graduated in Pakistan after its partition from India in 14 August 1947. He had an illustrious career starting from Professorship at the Military College of Engineering, Professor of Highways, Airfields, Soil and Foundation engineering, integral work on the Karakorum Highway KKH, Platoon Commander at PMA, Director General Frontier Works Organization, Director General Lowari Tunnel Organization (LTO), Managing Director Pak Arab Refinery Co (PARCO), Chairman Water & Power Development Authority (WAPDA), Chairman Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), Chairman National Highway Authority (NHA) and finally Chairman Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd (SNGPL)] were some of the prestigious posts held by him in his career.
He was President of the Pakistan Cricket Board, serving in the position from February 1984 to February 1988. He was a founding member, Secretary General and President of the Alpine Club of Pakistan.
A passionate mountaineer, he died on May 1, 2006, after an aggressive bout with a brain tumor at the age of 78, and was buried the same day.[1]