Air Chief Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir (March 5, 1947 – February 20, 2003) was chief of air staff of the Pakistan Air Force from 20 November, 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.
Early Life
ACM Mushaf Ali Mir was born in Lahore, and was one of nine children of a middle class Kashmiri family of Shia origin. His father, Farzand Ali Mir, was a calligrapher who died when Mushaf was young. He went to Government Wattan Islamia High School, Lahore.
Air Force Career
ACM Mushaf Ali Mir was commissioned in the PAF on January 22, 1967 in 43rd GD(P) Course. He was a graduate of Flying Instructors School, and Combat Commanders School. He did his staff college course, PAF Staff College (now PAF Air War College), Faisal and his NDC course from National Defence College, Islamabad.
Command and staff appointments
Mushaf's key command appointments include Officer Commanding, No. 1 FCU Squadron; Officer Commanding, No. 33 (Fighter/Multi-Role) Wing Minhas; Base Commander, Sargodha Airbase (now called Mushaf Airbase); and Air Officer Commanding, Southern Air Command.
His staff appointments include: 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.
Chief of Air Staff
ACM Mushaf Mir superseded five senior Air Marshals to become the Chief of Air Staff.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 Sheikh, 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.
Death in the Air Crash
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 PSOs (principal staff officers of the ranks of AVMS) and all of Air Chief's personal staff officers including three Air Commodores and one Group Captain. The official cause of crash was given to be pilot error amid bad weather conditions.
Mushaf's Group
Mushaf Ali Mir's magnetic personality is known to have created a dedicated loyal group of Pakistan Air Force's officials. Of these only two top ranking officials survived the crash, namely: Air Chief Marshal Tanvir Mahmood Ahmed and Air Commodore Shahid Hamid Shigri.
Conspiracy theories
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 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 9/11, 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.
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