In 2011, Ziauddin revealed to the news media that, it was Brigadier Ijaz Shah, the DG of Intelligence Bureau from 2004 to 2008, who had provided the support and hideout to Osama bin Laden in a IB's safe house in Abbottabad.

[13] In the military, Ziauddin Butt was reportedly noted for his remarkable academic performance and education, first attended and graduated from the Punjab University with double BSc in honors in Physics and Mathematics before joining the army in 1964.: notes [14] After his training at the PMA Kakul, Zia decided attend the Military College of Engineering in Risalpur where he gained BSc in Civil engineering with emphasis on construction, standing on the first place on exam markings and earned gold medal in the graduation ceremony.

[15] After the war, Zia was selected and sent to the United States where he attended the Defence Mapping School in the Fort Belvoir, Virginia, earning post-graduate diploma in Topography where he specialized as the topographer in 1974–76.

[9] In 1990–92, Major-General Ziauddin was appointed as the first Director-General of the Strategic Plans Division (SPD) headquartered in the JS HQ in Rawalpindi, that an agency that oversaw the protection of the country's nuclear arsenals.

Butt had been one of the most senior army generals in the military when Lt-Gen. Ali Kuli Khan and Lt-Gen. Khalid Nawaz were superseded with the four-star appointments of the junior most Lt-Gen.

[20] He was subsequently assigned to direct the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, after replacing Lt-Gen Naseem Rana who was posted as Master-General Ordnance (MGO) at the Army GHQ.

: 196–197 [21] Eventually, he authorized the ISI's Covert Action Division teams to infiltrate in Afghanistan, which was successful, but he was unable to convince Mullah Omar to hand over Osama bin Laden to Americans.

[26] Ziauddin Butt, as a retired general, told Carlotta Gall, the correspondent for The New York Times, that he thought Musharraf had arranged to hide Osama Bin Laden in Abbottabad.