The school was subsequently shifted to Abbottabad after the Partition of India in 1947. He then attended Prince of Wales Royal Indian Military College from 1941–1947 in Dheradun, India and joined the Pakistan Army in 1948. He was part of the first PMA long course which graduated in 1950. Having started his military career in 1948, Babar rose to become a Major General and led the Frontier Corps as its Commandant in 1974. In his long career in the Army, Babar served in the Artillery Corps and pioneered the Army Aviation Corps. During the 1965 war with India, Babar while flying a helicopter along with Major Akram, had mistakenly landed his helicopter near an Indian military position believing it to be a Pakistani military position. The position housed 70 Indian soldiers at that time. Upon realization Babar took out his gun and told them that they are surrounded by Pakistan army so they should surrender. As a result, Babar single-handedly captured an entire company of Indian army soldiers (70 POWs) and walked them back to the Pakistani territory. For his action he was awarded Sitara-e-Jurat while Major Akram was awarded Tamgha-e-Quaid-e-Azam. In the 1971 war, he commanded an artillery brigade supporting 23 Division and later commanded an infantry brigade until he was wounded and evacuated from the battlefield. He also had the distinction of having been awarded SJ & Bar. In 1972, he was appointed Inspector General Frontier Corps. He resigned from the Army in 1974 while commanding an infantry division and was appointed as Governor of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. In 1974, Babar was tasked with training and funding Tajiks rebels against Sardar Mohammed Daoud Khan. It was in retaliation of Daoud Khan decade long proxy war against Pakistan and armed incursion by Afghan army in Bajaur in 1960 and 1961. Ahmad Shah Massoud and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar were among the rebels trained by Babar. In 1975, Babar trained rebels staged their first uprising in Panjshir valley. 1975 Panjshir uprising has also been described as the first operation conducted by Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) in Afghanistan. Before this, ISI did not conduct any operation in Afghanistan. The uprising though unsuccessful, had forced Daoud Khan to change his ways and end his proxy war against Pakistan. Babar joined the Pakistan People's Party (the PPP) in 1977 after the arrest of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.