Shahid Iqbal was born on 5 July 1953, and was educated at the Cadet College Petaro in 1966, graduating in 1971. He joined the Pakistan Navy in 1972 and attended the Pakistan Naval Academy in Karachi where he graduated in 1974 with a degree in operations research, gaining commissionin the Navy as Sub-Lieutenant in the Naval Operations Branch. He was trained as a surface warfare officer and served in the various surface warships before being selected to continue his military training in the United Kingdom. In 1978, Lt. Iqbal was sent to United Kingdom where he did his military training at in England, specialized as Principal warfare officer with the Officer Corps of the Royal Navy. In addition, he attended and graduated from the Turkish Staff College and Naval War College in Lahore, gaining his staff course degree. He also attended the National Defence University in Islamabad where gained his MSc in War Studies. He also served in the faculty of the Naval War College, instructing courses on war studies. His career in the Navy mostly spent in the Naval Intelligence, eventually headed the Naval Intelligence in 2000s as its Director-General. From 2001–05, Cdre. Iqbal headed the Naval Intelligence, and was eventually promoted as two-star assignment. On 24 April 2006, RAdm Iqbal was appointed to command the Combined Task Force 150 at the NAVCENT in Bahrain when he relieved Dutch Commodore Hank Ort and assumed command of the Force. On 22 August 2006, RAdm Iqbal was relieved by German Rear Admiral Heinrich Lange, and returned to Pakistan.RAdm Iqbal was noted for being the first asian admiral of a "regional nation" who was given command of any of the three coalition task forces that comprise the Combined Maritime Force. In 2007, RAdm Iqbal was appointed at the Navy NHQ in Islamabad and was later appointed as DCNS. In 2008, Rear-Admiral Iqbal became the senior fleet commander when he took over the command as Commander Pakistan Fleet from Admiral Noman Bashir. Rear-Admiral Iqbal guided the fleet to be part of the Combined Task Force 150 and Combined Task Force 151 to launched operations against the piracy in the coast of Somalia. In 2009, he was promoted to three-star rank, and was again posted in the Navy NHQ as DCNS. Vice-Admiral Iqbal was then appointed as Chief of Staff at NHQ, and took over the post from Vice-Admiral Asaf Humayun who was appointed as VCNS. In 2010, VAdm Iqbal took retirement from the Navy and was subsequently preceded by Vice-Admiral Asif Sandila as VCNS. After his retirement in 2010, he joined the university administration of the Bahria University and was eventually appointed its Rector on 8 February 2012.
