Syed Shahid Hamid

Major General Syed Shahid Hamid (Urdu: سید شاہد حامد‎) HJ (September 17, 1910 – March 12, 1993) was a 2 star general in the Pakistan Army and a close associate of President Field Marshal Ayub Khan who played an important and an instrumental role in bringing Field Marshal Ayub Khan to power in the 1958 coup d'état that overthrew the government of President Major-General Iskander Mirza. Major General Syed Shahid Hamid was the first Master General of Ordnance (MGO) of Pakistan Army. A descendant of Amir Kulal, General Shahid Hamid was an inside player in the crucial months during Independence in 1947. A veteran intelligence officer, he authored numerous books, notably the Autobiography of a General which was last published in 1965. His other books are “Courage is a Weapon”, “Early Years of Pakistan” and “So they Rode and Fought”.

However, the most important book written by him was “Disastrous Twilight” which was the diary he kept from 1945 till 1947. This was the time he served as Private Secretary to FM Sir Claude Auchinleck, c-in-c of the Indian Army. In this book considerable doubt is cast on the impartiality and the integrity of the last Viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten.

It was this lack of impartiality that was one of the main factors in creating the chaos of the independence of Pakistan and India. This was done by manipulating the findings of the Radciffe Boundary Award.

He is the uncle of the Bombay-born British novelist, Salman Rushdie, a fierce critic of the ISI that Gen. Hamid founded.