He joined the Pakistan Army in 1959.[3] and subsequently joined the Pakistan Military Academy[4] In 1960, he was commissioned as Second Lieutenant in the army as a gunner officer. As a captain he participated in the Indo-Pakistani war of 1965, where he commanded his company.[4] In 1968, he was promoted to major. He also took part in the 1971 war against India.[4]
Durrani is a graduate from the General Staff Academy, Germany. He has also been Pakistan's military attaché to Germany from 1980 to 1984. After retiring from the army, he was Pakistan's ambassador to Germany (1994–97) and Saudi Arabia (2000–02).[4][7]
In 1994, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif accused Durrani and Mirza Aslam Beg of wanting to sell "heroin to pay for the country's covert military operations in early 1991."[8]
In 2015, Durrani told Mehdi Hasan in an Al Jazeera interview at the Oxford Union that it was “probable” the Pakistani government knew Osama bin Laden’s location and “the idea was that at the right time, his location would be revealed. And the right time would have been when you can get the necessary quid pro quo.”[10][11]
Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif demanded that the National Security Committee (NSC) should discuss the book.[17] However, in October 2018, Asad Durrani's lawyer said they had not received any notice of an inquiry and sought the removal of Asad Durrani's name from the Exit Control List.[18]
Shazar Shafat, a security analyst, suggests two reasons in South Asian Voices (hosted by The Stimson Center) as to why Asad Durrani may be facing the backlash. The first is related to Durrani's comments on Akhand Bharat in the book and the second is in relation to comments on Kulbhushan Jadhav.[19][20] However, a report by CNN found that the book (as well as a pirated PDF version) was freely available in Pakistan and that the Pakistani governments "overreaction", according to Hassan Askari Rizvi and other defence analysts, may be because Durrani did not get prior permissions for such a book.[21][22]
On 22 February 2019, Asad Durrani was found guilty of violating Pakistan's Military Code of Conduct for co-writing the book.[23][24] Asad Durrani's pension and other allowances have been withdrawn and it is yet to be decided if he should be taken off the Exit Control List or not.[25][26]
Pakistan
Pakistan Army
Lieutenant General
Hilal-i-Imtiaz
