Personnel

List of Air Chiefs

Main article: Chief of Air Staff (Pakistan)

1. Air Vice Marshal Allan Perry-Keene (15 August 1947 – 17 February 1949)
2. Air Vice Marshal Richard Atcherley (18 February 1949 – 6 May 1951)
3. Air Vice Marshal Leslie William Cannon (7 May 1951 – 19 June 1955)
4. Air Vice Marshal Arthur McDonald (20 June 1955 – 22 July 1957)
5. Air Marshal Asghar Khan (23 July 1957 – 22 July 1965)
6. Air Marshal Nur Khan (23 July 1965 – 31 August 1969)
7. Air Marshal Abdul Rahim Khan (1 September 1969 – 2 March 1972)
8. Air Marshal Zafar Chaudhry (3 March 1972 – 15 April 1974)
9. Air Chief Marshal Zulfiqar Ali Khan (16 April 1974 – 22 July 1978)
10. Air Chief Marshal Anwar Shamim (23 July 1978 – 5 March 1985)
11. Air Chief Marshal Jamal A. Khan (6 March 1985 – 8 March 1988)
12. Air Chief Marshal Hakimullah (9 March 1988 – 9 March 1991)
13. Air Chief Marshal Farooq Feroze Khan (9 March 1991 – 8 November 1994)
14. Air Chief Marshal Abbas Khattak (8 November 1994 – 7 November 1997)
15. Air Chief Marshal Parvaiz Mehdi Qureshi (7 November 1997 – 20 November 2000)
16. Air Chief Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir (20 November 2000 – 20 February 2003)
17. Air Chief Marshal Kaleem Saadat (18 March 2003 – 18 March 2006)
18. Air Chief Marshal Tanvir Mahmood Ahmed (18 March 2006 – 18 March 2009)
19. Air Chief Marshal Rao Qamar Suleman (19 March 2009 – 19 March 2012)
20. Air Chief Marshal Tahir Rafique Butt (19 March 2012 – 19 March 2015)
21. Air Chief Marshal Sohail Aman (19 March 2015 – 19 March 2018)^[59]
22. Air Chief Marshal Mujahid Anwar Khan (19 March 2018 - present)

Serving Air Marshals

Main article: List of serving Air Marshals of the Pakistan Air Force

Awards for valour

Air Commodore MM Alam"Little Dragon". Ace in a Day of the Pakistan Air Force

The Nishan-e-Haider (Urdu:نشان حیدر‬) (Order of Ali), is the highest military award given by Pakistan. Pilot Officer Rashid Minhas (1951 – 20 August 1971) is the only officer of the PAF to be awarded the Nishan-e-Haider for sacrificing his life to save an aircraft from being hijacked to India.^[60] Other awards include:

• Squadron Leader Muhammad Mahmood Alam – awarded for downing nine fighters,^[61] five in a minute,^{[62][63][64][65][66]} of the Indian Air Force in air-to-air combat.^[67]
• Squadron Leader Sarfaraz Ahmed Rafiqui Shaheed – awarded for refusing to abandon his group of fighters during a battle despite his guns being jammed. He continued his attempts to assist his squadron in the battle by chasing enemy fighters until eventually being shot down.^[68]

Special Forces

Main article: Special Service Wing

Women in the PAF

Previously, women had been employed by Pakistan's armed forces in non-combat roles only, such as the medical corps,^[69] and the PAF had remained all-male throughout its history.^[70] However, since 2003 women have been allowed to enroll in the aerospace engineering and other programs of PAF Academy Risalpur, including fighter pilot training programmes.^[69] It has been stated that standards are not compromised for women, those who do not achieve the same performance as their male counterparts are dropped from the course. A level of segregation between the genders is maintained. For example, early-morning parades are performed together but some parts of training, mainly physical exercises, are done with males and females separated. According to Squadron Leader Shazia Ahmed, the officer in charge of the first female cadets and a psychologist, this also improves confidence of the women.^[70]

In 2005 it was reported that two batches in the Air Force Academy's flying wing contained 10 women, with many more in the engineering and aerospace wings. Cadet Saba Khan, from Quetta in Balochistan, applied after reading a newspaper advertisement seeking female cadets. She was one of the first four women to pass the first stages of flying training on propeller-driven light aircraft and move onto faster jet-powered training aircraft.^[70]

In March 2006, the PAF inducted a batch of 34 fighter pilots which included the organisation's first four female fighter pilots. Three years of training had been completed by the pilots at PAF Academy Risalpur before they graduated and were awarded their Flying Badges during the ceremony. Certificates of honour were handed to the successful cadets by a "delighted" General Ahsan Saleem Hayat, vice chief of the Pakistan Army, who acknowledged that the PAF was the first of the Pakistan Armed Forces to introduce women to its combat units. One of the women, Flying Officer Nadia Gul, was awarded a trophy for best academic achievement. The other female graduates were Mariam Khalil, Saira Batool and the above-mentioned Saba Khan.^[69] A second batch of pilots, including 3 female pilots, graduated from the 117th GD(P) course at PAF Academy Risalpur in September 2006. The Sword of Honour for best all-round performance was awarded to Aviation Cadet Saira Amin, the first female pilot to win the award. Aviation Cadet Saira Amin won the Asghar Hussain Trophy for best performance in academics.^[71]

External video

A news report on the PAF's first operationally qualified female fighter pilots.

An interview with Ambreen Gul. (Urdu)

In September 2009 it was reported that seven women had qualified as operational fighter pilots on the Chengdu F-7, the first female combat pilots in the PAF's history, one of them being Ambreen Gull. Commanding Officer Tanvir Piracha emphasised that if the female pilots "are not good enough as per their male counterparts, we don't let them fly." It was noted that some of the female pilots wear the hijab while others do not.^[72]

Religious minorities in the PAF

Religious minorities have served in the PAF with distinction since its inception: Air Vice Marshal Eric Gordon Hall was Base Commander of Chaklala Air Base during the 1965 Indo-Pak War; Air Commodore Nazir Latif; Group Captain Cecil Chaudhry fought in the 1965 Indo-Pak War and, later helped establish the Combat Commanders School (CCS); Wing Commander Melvin Leslie Middlecoat was Commanding Officer of No. 9 Squadron during the 1965 Indo-Pak War; Squadron Leader Peter Christy; Patrick Desmond Callaghan is another Christian officer of who rose to the rank of Air Vice Marshal. He served as Eastern Air Force Command and Deputy Chief of Air Staff.^[73] Wing Commander Ronald Felix is a test pilot on the JF-17 Thunder since 2010 and was one of two PAF pilots flying the JF-17 at the 2011 Izmir Air Show in Turkey.