Career
He along with other generals were successful in overthrowing the elected government of prime minister Nawaz Sharif, in the 1999 coup d"état to bring General Pervez Musharraf to political power. He was serving as the Corporation Commander of X Corps, Rawalpindi at that time. After the coup, General Mahmud was transferred as the Director General Inter-Services Intelligence, replacing Lieutenant General Ziauddin Butt, who was Sharif"s choice to replace General Musharraf as the army chief before the coup.
He himself was replaced by another career Army intelligence officer Lieutenant General Jamshed Gulzar Kayani (of the 38th PMA Long Course) as the Rawalpindi Corps Commander.
During his time in Inter-Services Intelligence he pursued a Pakistani policy of supporting Islamic fundamentalists in Afghanistan such as Mohammed Omar. In October 1995, when Lieutenant General Ali Kuli Khan Khattak was appointed Rawalpindi Corps Commander by then army chief General Abdul Waheed Kakar, Mahmud Ahmed took over from him as DGMI. Mahmud was promoted to Lieutenant General in June 1998, and posted by General Jehangir Karamat, then COAS, as Commandant, National Defence College.
On taking over as the COAS in October, 1998, General Musharraf brought him as Commander X Corps replacing Lieutenant General Salim Haider who proceeded as Corps Commander Mangla. Mahmud was posted, after the coup, as Directorate General Inter-Services Intelligence, in place of Lieutenant General Ziauddin Butt.
Lieutenant General Mahmud Ahmed was later nominated for the ceremonial post of Colonel Commandant of the Corps of Artillery at the Artillery Regimental Center on 17 March 2001.
He had replaced the outgoing colonel commandant Lieutenant General Saeed Uz Zafar. Mahmud was later replaced by Lieutenant General Khalid Kidwai as the colonel commandant on 13 October 2004. General Mahmud was known to visit the United States regularly during his time as the head of Inter-Services Intelligence consulting senior officials in the United States. administration in the weeks before and after 9/11.
In fact, he was with Republican Congressman Porter Goss and Democratic Senator Bob Graham in Washington, discussing Osama bin Laden over breakfast, when the attacks of September 11, 2001 happened.
He was immediately called into meetings with American officials where demands of Pakistani cooperation were made and he was told to convey this to the Pakistani government. Joe Biden recalled the meeting: "I met with Him to deliver a message, that if he didn"t, didn"t stop supporting the Taliban we would take him out."
General Mahmud Ahmed opposed the United States invasion of Afghanistan.
He was retired from his role in the Inter-Services Intelligence on 8 October 2001, just prior to the United States invasion of Afghanistan. He was replaced by Lieutenant General Ehsan ul Haq as the Director General Inter-Services Intelligence. On October 9, 2001, The Times of India reported that "United States authorities sought his removal after confirming the fact that $100,000 were wired to World Trade Center hijacker Mohamed Atta from Pakistan by Ahmad Umar Sheikh at the insistence of General