Jaffar Khan

Khan was inducted into the Pakistan Army through the sports quota in 1998. In 2000, he kept a clean sheet in the PFF President's Cup final against Allied Bank, which Pakistan Army won 1–0. Khan helped them retain the trophy in 2001 until 2006-07 where he set a new goalkeeping record by not conceding a goal through 16 matches. In 2001, Khan reportedly received an offer from a second division club in the UK and also a first division side in Korea, but was not given permission from the superiors in the Pakistan Army.

2001–2003: Rise to prominence

Khan was discovered by then Pakistan youth team and under-23 manager John Layton back in early 1999, and found his way into the Pakistan national football team soon enough. In November 2000, he featured at the 2000 AFC Youth Championship in Tehran. Khan was declared the Man of the Match in a 2–1 victory against United Arab Emirates. He started his senior international career with a tour of England in 2001 against Coventry City. He subsequently played at the 2002 FIFA World Cup qualification in 2001, and a friendly test series against Sri Lanka in 2002. In April 2002, he played with the youth team during the 2002 AFC Youth Championship qualification in Karachi. He was also called by the Pakistan national under-23 team for the 2002 Asian Games. After participating in the 2003 SAFF Gold Cup, he featured in the 2004 AFC Asian Cup qualification.

2003–2013: Captaincy

At the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification in November 2003 against Kyrgyzstan, Khan replaced Haroon Yousaf as the captain of the national team. After playing at the 2004 Summer Olympics qualifiers, he took the under-23 side all the way to the final of the 2004 South Asian Games against India, where his string of saves gave Pakistan a 1–0 victory. After playing in the 2005 Islamic Solidarity Games, he retained his captaincy for a three-match friendly series against India in 2005, later playing in the 2005 SAFF Gold Cup and the 2007 AFC Asian Cup qualification the same…

Khan got an AFC License C and did a specialised goalkeeping course in Bahrain. He was briefly appointed as goalkeeping coach for the Pakistan national team from 2014 to 2015. In 2019 following his retirement from football, he became the goalkeeping coach for his club. In 2021, Khan was appointed as head coach of Pakistan Army. In August 2023, Khan was appointed as the goalkeeping coach for the Pakistan under 16 national team for the 2023 SAFF U16 Championship held in Bhutan.

He was born on 20 March 1981 in Paniala, in the Dera Ismail Khan district in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province into an ethnic Pashtun family. At the age of 16, he started playing club football with Khyber Club Paniala.