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Khurshid Ahmed was a star sportsman at Petaro and
during his army career as well. He was a fine
hockey player and became the
captain of the college
hockey team in 1964-1965. He participated in
the ISSST tournament as captain of the hockey team
in 1964. He was a part of the college Shooting
team that won that year at ISSST.
During his final
year at Petaro (1964-1965), he was also appointed
the JUO of Jinnah House
as well.
Soon after leaving Petaro, he joined Pakistan Air
Force.
During the 1965 War, Khurshid Ahmed was a Flight
Cadet in the PAF Academy. The following year, he opted to join
Pakistan Army and was inducted in the 39th PMA
Long Course in 1966, a year after the
Indo-Pakistan War. He was commissioned in 2 Baloch
Regiment in 1968.
During the 1971 War, he was the
Adjutant of 53 Baloch Regiment (now renamed as the
20 Sindh Regiment) posted at Lahore under the
command of Lt.Col Mirza Aslam Beg (who later on
became Chief of Army Staff). His unit was
earmarked to move to East Pakistan, but turn of
events did not allow the move.
In 1972, he was
given a staff position as G-3 at the 77 Brigade
posted at Kharian. A couple of years later, he
went back to his first unit, i.e. 2 Baluch,
followed by an 18 month course in German language
at the National Institute of Modern Languages.
In 1978, he went
back again to 43 Baluch and was posted to Dera
Bugti, and did his Staff College course in 1979.
Then for the next three years (1980-83), he
remained the brigade major at Sialkot. He got his
promotion to the rank of a Lieut. Colonel in 1983
and was appointed the commanding officer of 43
Baluch.
From 1986 onwards,
his postings have been primarily in the field of
training. That year, he was posted to the Officers
Training School at Mangla, and then as a Senior
Instructor at the Infantry School of Tactics,
Quette from 1987-89. He moved to Gujranwala as
Col. GS with the 30 Corps in 1990, and got his
final promotion to the rank of a brigadier in
1992. He was posted as the Commander of the 104
Brigade at Sialkot form 1992-94.
In 1994, he was
appointed the Director of the Infantry Training at
the GHQ for a year. But the following year, he was
sent on deputation to the Government of Punjab as
the Director General of Sports for two years. He
could not really survive in a civilian set up, nor
could he handle the petty politics. So he reverted
back to the army in 1997 and was appointed the
Director of the Central Army Press - a position he
retained until his retirement from the Pakistan
Army in the year 2000.
Shortly before his
retirement, Brig. Khurshid Ahmed was given the
coveted Sitara-e-Imtiaz (Military) award as well.
He has chosen to get
into agriculture since his retirement and has been
managing his farms at Leiah, Sadiqabad and
Rahimyar Khan since leaving the army.
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