[3][4] Abbas Khattak was born in Peshawar, NWFP on 16 July 1943.: 355 [5] He was educated at the Cadet College Hasan Abdal, and joined the Pakistan Air Force in 1960, from which he was directed to attend the famed Pakistan Air Force Academy in Risalpur.

was among the eight fighter pilots who were selected to take part in famous aerial raid on Pathankot Air Force Station in India, a squadron commanded by then-Squadron Leader Sajad Haider.

Khattak was posted with the Eastern Command in East-Pakistan, leading several mission against the Indian Air Force but was reposted in Sargodha Air Force Base before his country's surrender in Eastern Front of the third war with India in 1971.: 69 [8] After the war, Wg-Cdr.

[9] In 1988, Air-Commodore Khattak was appointed as AOC of the Southern Air Command, serving until 1990.: 48 [10] In 1991, AVM Khattak was posted to the Air Headquarters (AHQ) in Islamabad as DCAS (Training), where he played a pioneering role in aviation and flight safety programs.

[14] During his tenureship as air chief, ACM Khattak made attempts to acquire the Mirage-2000 from Qatar but vetoed the acquisition of MiG-29F and the Su-27 aircraft from the Eastern Europe, despite the strong backing of the then-Chairman joint chiefs, ACM Feroze Khan, due to their poor war performances.