[1] Having remembered as an upright and an honest officer during his military career, Kiani had served as a chairman of Federal Public Service Commission during the General Musharraf's regime and had to leave when he and the then Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz developed differences.
[3] He attended and graduated from the Pakistan Military Academy in the class of 38th PMA Long Course, and gained commissioned in the Baloch Regiment as 2nd Lt. in 1964.
Kiani fought against the Indian Army on the eastern border but due to his objections on General Niazi's and his staff, he was recalled to back to Pakistan, avoiding becoming prisoner of war.
[6] In 1972, he was promoted as Major, continuing his service with the ISI in Karachi, where he worked on the classified assignments covering the security and intelligence management.
[7] In 1980s, he went to attend the National Defence University (NDU) and graduated with MSc in War studies before posting back to the Military Intelligence (MI) where Colonel Kiani worked with then-Brigadier Pervez Musharraf on Siachen mission helping him to secure two intermediate posts, Bilafond La in Siachen Glacier.
[10] During the interview with Shahid Masood in Geo News, Kiani clarified his role by stating that he was the major-general during the coup d'état and was promoted to three-star assignment on 1 November 1999.
[5] Lieutenant-General Kiani attended the meeting Chief of Army Staff General Pervez Musharraf regarding the terrorist attacks in New York, United States where he, along with others, dissented from the war on terror policy.
[5] About the decision of supporting the United States, General Kiani maintained in 2008: "The corps commander is a professional soldier and ignoring his advice leads to losses.
"[5] In 2001, General Kiani was removed from his field command assignment and was posted in the Army GHQ in Rawalpindi as an Adjutant-General, which he served until his retirement in 2004.
He had severe confrontation with Prime Minister Aziz and was of the view that the row between two men had become a personalized affair though he had pleaded President Musharraf not to drag the FPSC into a controversy.
[16] On 30 March 2006, Kiani resigned from the FPSC's chairmanship after the government reduced his tenure by two-and-a-half years through a presidential ordinance.
[18] However, before the trial took place, President Musharraf made an unsuccessful move suspend and dismissed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, and declared a state of emergency in 2007.
[5] Shortly after his interview with Shahid Masood on Geo News, Kiani was admitted to the CMH in Rawalpindi with the complaint of pain in abdomen where military doctors diagnosed an infection in his stomach and suggested an operation.
[21][22][23] On 4 June 2008, Kiani appeared in Meray Mutabiq, a political talk show, on Geo News and was interviewed by Dr. Shahid Masood where he severely criticised President Pervez Musharraf and his role in Kargil and War on Terror.
[5] He was also critical of treatment given to the Afghan ambassador Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef in 2001, and recommended actions against it but his advice fell on deaf ears.
[24] After his revelation, Kiani was widely criticised by the Major General (retired) Rashid Qureshi, the spokesperson of Pervez Musharraf.
Major-General Qureshi had also said that General Kiani had behaved like "an angry and perturbed child" who was talking senselessly about all the favours bestowed on him.