Ehsan ul Haq was born in Mardan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan, into a Pashto-speaking family on 22 September 1949. He was educated at the PAF Public School in Sargodha, a school under the administration of the Air Force Education Command, and matriculated in 1967. He joined the Pakistan Army in 1967, and was directed to attend the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA) in Kakul where he passed out in the class of 41st PMA Long Course from the academy in 1969. 2nd-Lt. Ehsan was commissioned in the Army Air Defence Command, and serving in the Western front of the third war with India in 1971.