Kamal Matinuddin

Military career Following Pakistan's independence in 1947, Matinuddin was commissioned as a gunner in the 7th Field Regiment of the Royal Pakistan Artillery. He participated in the First Kashmir War, shelling enemy positions in the Bhimber sector. He studied at the Canadian Army Command and Staff College in Kingston, graduating in 1957. During his 34-year long service in the military, He witnessed action in the Second Kashmir War and the 1971 War. He also served as Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok. In his book Tragedy of Errors (1994), Matinuddin addressed, studied and wrote an eyewitness account of the political differences and causes which underpinned the secession of East Pakistan. The book was translated by Muhammad Sheraz Dasti into Urdu and republished in 2018 as Naslon Ne Sazaa Payi. As a defence analyst, he wrote extensively on the conflict in Afghanistan and on Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme.

Works

Death Matinuddin died on 5 February 2017 at the Combined Military Hospital in Rawalpindi, aged 90 or 91. His funeral was held at the city's Race Course Ground.