5th January is the 7th death anniversary of Air Marshal Asghar Khan, who was the 5th Commander-in- Chief of Pakistan Air Force and the first Pakistani to command this prestigious institution. Following in the footsteps of his father, Brigadier Thakur Rahmatullah Khan, he and all his brothers, except one, joined the armed forces of Pakistan. Two of his siblings, Asif and Khalid, who also had joined the Air Force, met their Maker in air crashes at an early stage. His father was a POW during World War-I, and also served in World War-II. His illustrious father and elder brothers played a valiant role in the liberation of Azad Jammu Kashmir.
After independence, Asghar Khan opted to join PAF. While commanding the Flying Training School at Risalpur, he had the unique distinction of hosting the founder of Pakistan. As Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) of PAF from 1957-65, the venerable Asghar Khan moulded PAF in tempered steel and through his outstanding attributes of leadership; transformed it from a fledgling status with WWII aircraft into a fine fighting force, which had the capacity to rise to the occasion when the test came and got the better of an adversary five times its size in 1965, 1971 and continues to do so in every trial and tribulation the nation faces.
Under his able leadership the PAF created a world record as early as 2 February, 1958, by performing the 16 aircraft loop on the US supplied Sabre jets, which catapulted the fledgling air force into a highly professional and operational fighting machine. The next feat was equally daring, when on 27 October, 1964, during an air display at Peshawar, at which Omar Dani, C-in-C of the Indonesian Air Force, was the chief guest, the first ever formation aero-batics on the heavy and unwieldy B-57 Bombers was performed.
During the skirmish in the Rann of Kutch, Air Marshal Asghar Khan played a master stroke in keeping the combat limited and also saving Pakistani ground forces from interdiction by IAF since compared to India, Pakistan hardly had any air base in the vicinity. Asghar Khan, who had attended Military Col-lege, Dehradun, with his Indian counterpart, Air Chief Marshal Arjun Singh and knew him personally, called him on the hotline. He advised Arjun Singh that it would be prudent to agree to keep both Air Forces away from the local conflict of Rann because, if the IAF attacked the Pakistan Army in the Rann of Kutch areas, the PAF would feel free to retaliate anywhere and in any manner, it saw fit, and this could lead to an immediate escalation of the local conflict beyond predictable dimensions. Air Chief Marshal Arjun Singh heeded to the implied threat which proved advantageous to Pakistan Army’s military duel with Indian army.
My first glimpse of Asghar Khan came in 1965, when as C-in-C, he came to inspect PAF Pub-lic School Sargodha, where I was a student. I still remember that despite the fact that he was the Air chief, he was walking one step behind our Principal Mr Hugh Catchpole, who had been his teacher at the Royal Indian Military College Dehradun.
The lesson that your teacher is to be respected, no matter which position you may be elevated to, was instilled in our tender minds that day.
I kept meeting the Air Marshal after his retirement on and once he narrated an extraordi-nary story. When in 1947, he opted for joining PAF; the residence he was occupying in New Delhi was allotted to Wing Commander Nair of IAF, who asked Asghar Khan how he was tra-velling to Pakistan? When Asghar Khan replied that he had booked seats for himself and his family by train, the Indian officer strongly advised against it stating that Hindu and Sikh ma-rauders were attacking trains to Pakistan.
He instead got seats for Asghar Khan and his fam-ily on the Dakota which was taking the Quaid to Karachi. Asghar Khan narrates that not a single passenger on the train he had booked his seats, made it alive to Pakistan.
He opted for retirement on 23 July 1965, when he realized that he had not even been in-formed nor consulted before the launch of Operation Gibraltar. After retiring from PAF, As-ghar Khan became Chairman of Civil Aviation, Tourism and Managing Director of PIA. To ac-quaint himself with the working of civil airline and problem of air crews, he got converted into a captain of Boeing aircraft after formally acquiring a license and appearing in the req-uisite tests and occasionally flew as such. The national carrier benefited immensely from his sterling leadership qualities. His tenure as Chairman is often remembered as the “Golden Age of PIA” as he transformed all of PIA’s profits into setting up simulator training centres at Karachi and acquiring real estate assets like the Roosevelt Hotel in USA and numerous other cities of the world, from which PIA still accrues revenues.
In 1970, Asghar Khan founded a secular political party, the Tehreek-e-Istaqlal. Because of adherence to principles and strong convictions, he never won elections but earned the re-spect of the nation. His party has been a nursery for high profile political figures in whom he tried to instill decency and honesty. His son Omar Asghar Khan, a dedicated politician, was brutally murdered but the air marshal bore the loss with dignity.
The courtesy extended to me personally can never be forgotten. He participated in my talk shows and book launch ceremonies and even graced the weddings of my children. Asghar Khan finally met his Maker on 5th January 2018.
PAF befittingly organized a state funeral while a formation of four K-8 trainers and four T-37 aircraft from PAF Academy, now named after him, presented a fly past in the honour of the great leader. The aircraft flew the fa-mous ‘Missing Airman’ Formation, which is an aerial salute indicating the departure of fallen air warriors for the eternal abode. May the soul of the father of PAF rest in peace. Ameen.
—The writer, Retired Group Captain of PAF, is author of several books on China.
(sultanm.hali@gmail.com)
