War appointments and in East Pakistan In 1965, Arif, as a Major, served in the
armoured corps along with then-Lieutenant Colonel
Zia-ul-Haq and participated in the
second war with India over the disputed
Kashmir. Arif commanded an American
M48 tank Squadron against the Indian Army. After the war, he was sent back to the
military intelligence and stationed in
East Pakistan (in the
East Pakistan Rifles). Promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 1967, he greatly aided towards
troop redeployment of the
Eastern Command in formulating a battle plan, codename: "Operation X-Sunderbans-1." In March 1971, he was promoted to full
Colonel and witnessed the meeting with President
Yahya Khan who decided the launch of the
military operations against the rebels in the East should take place. Arif took over the situation himself to control the law and order. About this meeting, Arif described the meeting as: President Yahya took matters in his hands, thus good bye to civil bureaucracy. After receiving orders from
Lieutenant-General F.A. Chishti, GoC-in-C of
X Corps, Brigadier Arif rotated the
111th Brigade to take control of the
civilian government in support of
Chief of Army Staff General
Zia-ul-Haq and
Chairman joint chiefs Mohammad Shariff. In 1979, he helped and aided in preparing a
national security strategy against the
Russian invasion of
Afghanistan, after a meeting with President
Zia-ul-Haq upon the latter's request.
Vice Chief of Army Staff (1984–87) A quintessential staff officer, Major-General Arif's career accelerated and gained reputation as an effective commander in the military intelligence. Major-General Arif served in the military intelligence until 1983 when he promoted as
Lieutenant-General and posted in a staff assignment in the
Army GHQ. Despite never effectively commanding the field assignments, he was named and appointed as
Vice Chief of Army Staff under President Zia in 1984. Towards diplomacy with the United States, General Arif made frequent trips with United States, successfully convincing the
Reagan administration to allow the secretive atomic bomb development by making it very clear to the United States that "[Pakistan] won't compromise on its nuclear weapons programme, but won't conduct a test to harm to
relationship between two nations." In 1983, the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) placed a mole near the
Kahuta Research Laboratories but was thwarted by the ISI, which according to General Arif, the ISI took the mole to its secret museum to train its own spies in espionage operations. In 1986–87, he deployed and rotated the
V Corps, with support from the
Southern Air Command to deter the
Indian Army's
major military exercise that took place near Pakistan's border under supervision of General
Sundarji, then-
army chief of Indian Army. During this time, he refuted the claims made by dr.
A.Q. Khan and immediately issued directives towards the
policy of deliberate ambiguity over the clandestine atomic bomb programme. ==Post retirement==