Lieutenant-General Kiani took over the command of the X Corps from the outgoing Lieutenant-General Mahmud Ahmed, which he led until 2001. 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. 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."