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Air
Chief Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir (March 5, 1947 – February 20,
2003) was Chief of Air Staff of the Pakistan Air Force from November 20, 2000 until his death on February 20, 2003 when
the PAF Fokker F-27 he was traveling in, crashed near Kohat,
Pakistan. He was succeeded by ACM Kaleem Saadat.
Mushaf Ali Mir was born in Lahore, and was one of nine
children of a middle class Kashmiri family of Shia Muslim
origin. His father, Farzand Ali Mir, was a calligrapher who
died when Mushaf was young. He went to Government Wattan
Islamia High School, Lahore.
Mir was commissioned in the PAF on January 22, 1967 in 43rd
GD(P) Course. He was a graduate of Flying Instructors School
(FIS), and Combat Commanders School (CCS). He did his staff
college course, PAF Staff College (now PAF Air War College),
Faisal and his NDC course from National Defence College,
Islamabad.
Mushaf's key command appointments include Officer
Commanding, CCS Mirage Squadron; Officer Commanding, No. 33
Wing Minhas; Base Commander, PAF Base Sargodha (now called
Mushaf Airbase); and Air Officer Commanding, Southern Air
Command.
His staff appointments include: Director Operations,
Assistant Chief of Air Staff (Plans) at the Air
Headquarters, Chief Project Director of Project Falcon
(F-16) and Green Project Flash (Mirage 2000-5). His final
assignment before promotion to CAS was Chairman of the
Pakistan Aeronautical Complex Board at Kamra.
ACM Mushaf Mir superseded five senior Air Marshals to become
the Chief of Air Staff. Those air marshals were, Muhammad
Farooq Qari, Vice Chief of Air Staff; Zahid Anis, DCAS
(Operations); Qazi Javed Ahmed, DCAS (Personnel); Pervez
Iqbal Mirza, AOC Southern Air Command; and Riazuddin Shaikh,
DCAS (Administration), all of whom sought premature
retirement. He was promoted by General Pervez Musharraf to
become the 16th Chief of Air Staff on November 20, 2000.
During his tenure as Air chief, the PAF's F-6 aircraft were
retired from service. Some of them were given to the
Bangladesh Air Force.
On February 20, 2003, the Pakistani Air Chief died along
with his wife Bilquis Mir and all other 15 officers, when
their Fokker F-27 crashed during a routine flight to Kohat
Airbase. The casualties included other high ranking
officials of the Air Force including two Principal Staff
Officers; Air Vice Marshal Abdul Razzaq, DCAS (Training) and
Air Vice Marshal Saleem Nawaz, DCAS (Administration) and all
of Air Chief's personal staff officers including Air
Commodore Syed Javaid Sabir, Secretary to CAS, Air Commodore
Rizwanullah Khan, PSO to CAS and Group Captain Aftab Cheema,
APSO to CAS, Wing Commander Syed Tabassam Abbas, ADC to CAS.
The casualties also included the pilots Squadron Leader
Mumtaz Kiani, Squadron Leader Ahmed Yousaf, and Squadron
Leader Abdul Rab; and the staff Senior Technician Khan
Muhammad, Senior Technician Ghazanfar Ali, Corporal
Technician Muhammad Ashraf, Corporal Technician Fayyaz,
Corporal Technician Khush Kadam Shah and Corporal Technician
Amjad Pervez.
The official cause of crash was given to be pilot error amid
bad weather conditions.
According to investigative journalist Gerald Posner, the
death of Mushaf Ali Mir was not an accident but an act of
sabotage. The author claims in his book Why America Slept:
The Failure to Prevent 9/11, that Osama bin Laden struck a
deal with Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)
through Mushaf Ali Mir in 1996 to get protection, arms and
supplies for al-Qaeda. The meeting was blessed by the
Saudi's through Prince Turki bin Faisal Al Saud, the then
intelligence chief. However, after the September 11 attacks
on the United States in 2001, and reversal of Pakistani and
Saudi stances favoring Taliban and al-Qaeda, the three Saudi
princes associated with the deals died within days and seven
months after that Mushaf Ali Mir's plane crashed near the
Pakistan-Afghan border. Prince Turki bin Faisal, on the
other hand was removed as intelligence chief and sent as
Ambassador to United Kingdom during the same time. However, no evidence has been bought forward to conclusively
proof Posner's account of events. |