Career
He was one of few ethnic kashmiri officers to join Pakistan Army at the independence of Pakistan in 1947 as senior most kashmiri officers Hiralal Atal and Maryland Karimullah Sheriff joined Indian army. Shariff then moved to 3 Punjab Regiment.His bravery in kashmir operations was noted and he was rapidly promoted. He became Lieutenant Colonel in 1952 and was promoted to Brigadier-General eight years later in 1959.
Then Brigadier-General Shariff took part in the 1960 Director Operations when the army removed the Nawab of Director when he was commanding the Shariff Force.
As a major general, a rank to which he was promoted in 1966, General Shariff served in the GHQ, commanded an infantry division and then became Commandant, Command and Staff College, Quetta in May 1968 continuing till January 1970. In 1970 he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General and posted as Pakistan"s Permanent Representative at Central Treaty Organization Headquarters in Ankara, Turkey.
During the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War then Lieutenant General Shariff took over the 33rd Infantry Division from Major General Chaudhry Naseer Ahmed who was wounded on 12 December 1971. After the war he handed over command to Major General Iqbal Khan and headed back to Turkey.
He soon returned in 1972 as Corps Commander at II Corps at Multan, overseeing the Aid-to-Civil Power during the language disturbances in Sindh in mid-1972.
He ensured that not a shot was fired while restoring complete calm and quiet. In 1974, he became Colonel Commandant of the Punjab Regiment and in 1976 was promoted to full General taking over as the first, a position he served in till his voluntary retirement in 1978. lieutenant is said that he made the decision to retire after General Zia repeatedly delayed Parliamentary Elections and extended his martial law, which Shariff believed was unconstitutional.
After his retirement he faded from public life, refusing to accept any post in government, living off his pension and savings.
General Shariff wanted to rotate the chairmanship among the three services (ie, Army, Navy and Air Force) if the system of military governance was to evolve as intended. Because initially, General Shariff, being the senior most officer was chosen as the Chairman JCSC with General Zia-ul-Haq the Army chief
However, even before the system could evolve itself into a cohesive working structure the July 1977 coup disturbed the power balance totally, and tilted it heavily in favor of the army chief
