KARACHI: Former army chief Gen Abdul Waheed Kakar (retd), who played a decisive role in resolving Pakistan’s 1993 political crisis, passed away in Rawalpindi on Monday at the age of 89. He leaves behind a legacy that will continue to figure in discussions on the country’s civil-military relationship.
His passing was announced by Inter-Services Public Relations, which said in a note that the Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of Army Staff, Field Marshal Asim Munir, and all ranks of the Pakistan Army expressed sorrow over his passing and paid tribute to his “distinguished military career, leadership and invaluable services”. President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also conveyed their condolences.
Gen Kakar is best remembered for helping end a serious confrontation between then-president Ghulam Ishaq Khan and then-prime minister Nawaz Sharif in 1993, when the country seemed on the brink of another prolonged political crisis and the government stood paralysed. His intervention led to the resignations of both the president and the prime minister, the installation of a caretaker government, and fresh elections that brought the late Benazir Bhutto back to power. The whole episode popularly came to be known as the “Kakar Formula”.
That episode is still referenced in modern discourse because the army under Gen Kakar not only avoided getting involved in the ongoing politics, but also stopped well short of imposing martial law or assuming direct governance. The Kakar Formula instead gave the stakeholders a way out of the political dispute, allowing the political process to continue.
Born on March 23, 1937, in Peshawar, he belonged to the Kakar tribe, whose roots lie in Balochistan. Gen Kakar studied at Edwardes College in Peshawar before joining the army and was commissioned into the Frontier Force Regiment in October 1959. He saw combat in both the 1965 war with India, where he served in the Chawinda sector, and the 1971 war, where he served as a brigade major in the Sulemanki sector.
His subsequent career included command and staff appointments, including commanding the 16th Infantry Division and serving as chief of staff of II Corps in Multan. He attended the Command and Staff College in Canada, and later studied at the National Defence College in Rawalpindi.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026