[1][2][3] Gauhar was born in Gujranwala on 17 March 1923 into a Punjabi family of the Rajput-Janjua clan to Raja Tafazzal Hussain Janjua, a minor government official, as the eldest of his five children.
The last official act of the dictator Ayub Khan before handing over power as president was to invite Altaf Gauhar to lunch with his family and bestow on him the high civil award of Hilal-i-Quaid-i-Azam.
In 1969, Gauhar was initially marginalized as Director Finance Services Academy Lahore, a position much lower in rank than a Central Secretary.
It was while in jail, that Gauhar became deeply absorbed by the Quran, from which he was later to make several distinguished translations, the last one shortly before he died, when he was in great pain and undergoing chemotherapy for cancer.
According to newspaper, The Guardian, "In Pakistan, on his death, he was commemorated as "a very eminent Pakistani", a man who knew power and how it could be used or abused".