Durrani was born in 1941 in Rawalpindi, British India (present-day Pakistan). From 1957 to 1959, he attended the Government College, now a university, where he did his degree in Bachelor of Science. He joined the Pakistan Army in 1959.[3] and subsequently joined the Pakistan Military Academy, Kakul.[2] In 1960, he was commissioned as second lieutenant in the army as a gunner officer.