Asghar Khan passed away

Lahore : Former chief of air staff Air Chief Marshal Asghar Khan passed away on Friday morning. He was going to turn 97 on January 17 this year.
Earlier reports stated that his burial will be held on Saturday in his native village of Nawa Shehar, Abbottabad.

Asghar Khan, who became the youngest head of PAF at the age of 35, passed away after a long illness. “Air Marshal Asghar Khan headed the PAF diligently and with courage. With his leadership capabilities, he played a vital role in transforming the PAF into a modern air force,” Air Marshal Sohail Khan was quoted as saying in PAF’s press release.

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Friday expressed deep grief and sorrow over the death of Air Marshal ( retd.) Asghar Khan. Paying tribute to his services for the country, the Prime Minister prayed for eternal peace of the departed soul and grant of courage to the bereaved family to bear this irreparable loss with fortitude.

Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa paid tribute to the late fighter in a message posted on Twitter by military spokesman Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor, calling him “iconic”.
COAS expresses his grief on demise of ex Air Chief, Air Marshal Asghar Khan, retired. An iconic soldier who will be remembered for his historic contributions for laying foundations of a strong Pakistan Air Force. May Allah bless his soul. Amen.”
PTI Chairman Imran Khan also shared a message of condolence on Twitter: “Saddened to learn of Air Chief Marshal Asghar Khan’s death early this morning. He transformed the PAF and was a man of steadfast principles and integrity. My prayers and condolences go to his family,” the PTI chief said.
In 1996, Air Marshal Khan had filed a human rights petition in the Supreme Court of Pakistan, accusing the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency of doling out money to a group of politicians in the 1990s.
The case was initiated by the air marshal after Benazir Bhutto’s interior minister, retired general Naseerullah Babar, had disclosed in the National Assembly in 1994 how the ISI had disbursed funds to purchase the loyalty of politicians and public figures so as to manipulate the 1990 elections, form the IJI, and bring about the defeat of the PPP.
16 years after the petition was filed, the Supreme Court in its judgement — penned by then Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry — ruled that the 1990 general elections had been polluted by dishing out Rs140 million to a particular group of politicians only to deprive the people of being represented by their chosen representatives.
The court had, however, thrown the ball back to the then PPP government by directing it to take necessary action under the Constitution and law against former army chief retired Gen Aslam Beg and former director general of Inter-Services Intelligence retired Lt Gen Asad Durrani for their role in facilitating the group of politicians and political parties to ensure their success against their rivals in the 1990 elections.
He authored several books, including an autobiography, titled My Political Struggle, in 2008.
Air Marshal Asghar Khan 17 January 1921 – 5 January 2018) retired as three star general who served as the first native Commander in Chief of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) under President Sikander Mirza (1956–59) and under President Ayub Khan until resigning in 1965 prior to the start of the air operations of the PAF during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965.

Initially commissioned in the Indian Army, Asghar Khan was drafted into Indian Air Force in 1940, seeing actions in Burma Campaign and was later sent to United Kingdom where he graduated from RAF Staff College at Bracknell, completing his collegiate courses from Joint Service Defence College, and completed his post-graduate studies from Imperial Defence College. Upon return to British Indian Empire, Asghar Khan resumed his active duty with the Royal Indian Air Force and opted for Pakistan following the independence in 1947, and settled in West-Pakistan.

 Asghar Khan became first commandant of Pakistan Air Force Academy in 1947 and was also the first to head the Directorate-General for Air Operations (DGAO) in 1950. Finally in 1957, Asghar Khan became the youngest to-date and the first native Air Force Commander-in-Chief of PAF. His tenure as air commander saw the extensive modernization of the PAF, in terms of both technical and military equipment, after resigning he was controversially not consulted by the president prior to launch of Operation Gibraltar.

After retiring from air force, Asghar Khan became president of civilian national flag carrier, the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) which he led until 1968.

In 1970, Asghar Khan founded the secular party, the Tehrik-e-Istiqlal, but performed poorly in 1970 parliamentary elections. However, in 1977, the party significant gained momentum and participated with full force in 1977 parliamentary elections, although the party failed to grasp any support in the public as compared to democratic socialist, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

He was designated a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International, and conferred with the Gold Medal by the Human Rights Commission, and Jinnah Award Award by the Jinnah Society for the cause of democracy. After years of founding the Independence Movement, Asghar Khan merged his party with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, led by cricketer-turned politician Imran Khan, in January 2012.

Muhammad Asghar Khan was born in Jammu, Kashmir and Jammu (princely state) in British Indian Empire on 17 January 1921.

His father was Brigadier Thakur Rahmatullah Khan, a Pathan officer of the Jammu & Kashmir State Forces, who was from Tirah, Northern Pakistan.

His mother’s name was Ghulam Fatima.

Asghar Khan and all his brothers, except his youngest brother, joined the armed forces of Pakistan, after the family relocated to Abbottabad during partition. 

After attending the Aitchison College at Lahore, he obtained a place at the Prince of Wales’s Royal Indian Military College in 1933, and joined the Indian Military Academy in 1939.

 Initially, Asghar Khan was commissioned into the Indian Army as a Second Lieutenant, starting his active duty from the Royal Deccan Horse in December 1940.

However this was short-lived, as he was attached to the newly established Indian Air Force in 1940, joining the No. 9 Squadron of the Indian Air Force. 

In 1944, Asghar Khan assumed the command his unit and commanded the aerial missions of No. 9 Squadron in Burma.

He took active participation in Burma Campaign 1944–1945, directing and commanding aerial operations against the Imperial Japan.

After World War II, Asghar Khan was sent to United Kingdom where he joined the RAF Staff College at Bracknell, where he completed a staff course.

Later, Asghar Khan joined the Joint Service Defence College where he gained B.Sc. in military ethics after submitting his thesis on actions involving the Joint Services. 

He conducted his post-graduate research and studies from Imperial Defence College where Asghar Khan was awarded M.Sc. in Military administration by the college faculty.

Upon his return, Asghar Khan was most-senior officer in the Royal Indian Air Force. Asghar Khan was also the first Royal Indian Air Force officer to fly a jet fighter aircraft—a Gloster Meteor— whilst doing a fighter leader’s course in UK in 1946.

On 7 June 1947, Asghar Khan joined the sub-committee led by RAF Air Vice Marshal Allan Perry-Keene to distribute the defence assets of undivided India between the proposed State of Pakistan. 

After the independence on 14 August 1947, Asghar Khan moved to newly established country Pakistan and, Prime minister Liaquat Ali Khan promoted Asghar Khan to the rank of Wing-Commander and appointed him the first commandant of the Pakistan Air Force Academy at Risalpur.

He was among the most senior officers of the Pakistan Air Force so in 1949, Asghar Khan became the first Officer commanding of the No. 1 Stryker Group based in Peshawar Air Force Base.

 In 1948, Asghar Khan greeted founder of Pakistan and Governor-General Muhammad Ali Jinnah when Jinnah visited the Pakistan Air Force Academy.

In 1950, Asghar Khan assumed the directorship of the Directorate-General of the Air Operations (DGAO). 

In 1955, Asghar Khan was appointed as the Assistant Chief of the Air Staff in the Air Headquarters, directing the air administration and personnel department at the Air Headquarters.

 As Assistant Chief of the Air Staff, Asghar Khan established the major units and infrastructure including the Fighter Leaders School (now Combat Commander’s School), the Air Staff College and the College of Aeronautical Engineering at the Pakistan Air Force Academy. As assistant chief of the air staff, Asghar Khan also instituted the Inspectorate directorate for the air force and initiated the tradition of regular air staff presentations.

Two of his brothers, Squadron Leader Khalid Khan and Pilot Officer Asif Khan were killed during service with the Pakistan Air Force.

After the retirement of Air vice-marshal (AVM) Arthur McDonald, Prime minister Huseyn Suhravardy approved the appointment of Asghar Khan as the commander-in-chief of Pakistan Air Force.

 On 23 July 1957, Prime minister Suhrawardy upgraded AVM Asghar Khan to three-star rank air marshal, making him the first native Air Force Commander-in-chief, yet at the age of 36, also the youngest to-date.

After assuming the command of air force, Asghar Khan commanded the air force for next eight years where he took initiatives to modernize and expand the air force facilities, installations and equipment, as well as the fighter jets acquired from the United States. 

Asghar Khan also launched the fighter training programmes and combat course at the PAF to train fighter pilots in modern air warfare.

 His style of leading the air force often comes with criticisms by his junior officers, first alleging that Air Marshal Asghar Khan was inclined to be autocratic in his decision makings.

 His juniors noted that the Air Marshal would go out of his way to elicit a whole range of opinions before taking a decision, but once that decision was made by him, he would not tolerate any ifs and buts about its implementations.

As for approving the appointments and selections process, Asghar Khan made no secret of his willingness to superseding the senior officers if that became unavoidable in ensuring that the best qualified officers needed to fill the key appointments, particularly in the combat units. 

During his long tenure, Air Marshal Asghar Khan gave commission to established air force bases, in Samungli, Sargodha, and the Peshawar.

The time he was appointed as the commander-in-chief, Asghar Khan negotiated with the United States to provide the military equipment, fighter jets, on an indefinite basis.

The combat units and fighter squadrons were quickly raised majority of which were equipped with the state-of-the-art F-86 Sabres, and others with F-104 Starfighter, B-57 Canberra, C-130 Hercules, T-33 and the T-37 Tweet aircraft.

After leaving air force, Asghar Khan was employed at the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and was appointed as the president of the national flag carriers, the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA).

There, Asghar Khan learned to fly the commercial airline and obtained a Commercial pilot licence after passing the exam from Federal Aviation Administration of the United States.

 Asghar Khan introduced new uniforms for the air hostesses and stewards which earned words of admiration at domestic and international airports.

During his tenure, PIA achieved lowest aircraft accident rate and highest net profit of Pakistan, and was a formidable competitor in the world airline business.

 His tenure as president is often reminded as “gold age of PIA”. Despite urging of the government to extend his tenure, Asghar Khan took retirement and left the MoD in order to start his political career in 1968.

After leaving the MoD, Asghar Khan gave vehement criticism and blamed President Ayub Khan and Foreign Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto for the causes of the 1965 war with India, and later turn his criticism pointing straight towards General Yahya Khan for the 1971 war failure, which resulted in the breakup of Pakistan when Sheikh Mujibur Rehman‘s Awami League, which had won the election, had not been allowed to form a government. In protest, Asghar Khan relinquished awards of ‘Hilal-i-Pakistan’ and ‘Hilal-i-Quaid-i-Azam’ as a protest against repressive policies of Field Marshal Ayub Khan in January 1969.

In 1970, Asghar Khan founded the Tehrik-e-Istiqlal, initially a centrist secular party.Asghar Khan criticized Bhutto on numerous occasions, holding him responsible for tyranny during the 1970 elections.

However, Asghar Khan and his party failed to score any big hits during the 1970 parliamentary elections, initially failing to secure any seats in the parliament.

During the Bangladesh Liberation War, Asghar Khan did support the East-Pakistan morally, alleging the West-Pakistan under Bhutto, of depriving East from their political and economical rights. He also demanded power to be handed over to the people of East Pakistan.

 In 1972, after Bhutto was made president, Asghar Khan accused Bhutto for the break-up, later noting that: “We are living virtually under one party state…. The outstanding feature is suppression.”^[

During Bhutto’s rule from 1971 to 1977, Air Marshal Asghar Khan played a major role in opposition to Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. During the 1977 elections, Asghar Khan allied his party, the Tehreek-i-Istiqlal with the Pakistan National Alliance (PNA) against the People’s Party.

It was during this period he and his party faced frequent attacks by Pakistan Peoples Party supporters and from the brutal paramilitary Federal Security Force. He was imprisoned in Kot Lakhpat and Sahiwal prisons from March to June 1977.

He contested two seats, one from Karachi and the other from Abbotabad, despite alleged rigging by the PPP, Asghar Khan was elected by a huge margin from both seats.

 The PNA rejected the election results as rigged and launched a nationwide agitation against the results.

Asghar Khan resigned from both National Assembly seats as a mark of protest against massive rigging in the elections.

While imprisoned, Asghar Khan wrote a much criticized letter to the leadership of Defence Forces, asking them to renounce their support for the “Illegal regime of Bhutto”, and asked the military leadership to “differentiate between a “lawful and an unlawful” command… and save Pakistan.”. 

This letter is considered by the historians as instrumental in encouraging the advent of the far-right Zia regime.

 However in television show, Asghar Khan strongly defended his letter as according to him “nowhere in the letter had he asked for the military to take over”, and he had written it in response to a news story that he had read in which a Major had shot a civilian showing him the “V sign”.

After the overthrow of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s government by the military in the summer of 1977, Asghar Khan was offered a cabinet post by General Zia-ul-Haq, Asghar Khan refused to join the cabinet and also withdrew from the PNA after a growing split between the various parties.After successfully calling for Bhutto’s “judicial murder”, Asghar Khan decided to take on the far-right regime of General Zia-ul-Haq who announced to hold the general elections in 1979.

 The Tehrik-e-Istiqlal became the most favorite party and benefited with large number of high-profile civilian political figures, including Navaz Sharif, Khurshid Kasur, Aitzaz Ahsan, Rashid Ahmad, Javed Hashmi, Akbar Bugti, Mushahid Hussain, Nadir Pervez, Gohar Ayub Khan, Zafar Ali Shah, Ahmed Raza Kasuri, Sher Afgan Niazi, Manzoor Wattoo, Syeda Abida Hussain, Syed Fakhar Imam and many others.

All of these members left Asghar Khan under Nawaz Sharif who founded the largest conservative party, the Pakistan Muslim League (N).

In 1986, Asghar Khan left the MRD, as a result of which many of the Tehrik’s members resigned in protest. Asghar Khan boycotted the non-partisan elections held in 1985. However, Asghar Khan and his party took full part in 1988 parliamentary elections. But this time, he was accused by Pakistan Peoples Party for having called for Bhutto’s death sentence and the martial law, which Asghar Khan himself failed to justify.His party members disintegrated and allied with conservative Nawaz Sharif, a major set back for his career. 

Asghar Khan’s public rating plummeted and faced a complete annihilation and defeat in 1988 elections. He conceded his defeat but again contested in 1990 parliamentary elections from Lahore, Asghar Khan once again faced defeat.

Briefly retiring from active politics in the late 1990s his party faced another one of its many splits. Since 1990, Asghar Khan has not held a significant position in politics.

However, at the last moment, General Zia-ul-Haq indefinitely postponed the elections, ordering the arrests of Asghar Khan who remained under house arrest for more than five years. 

In 1983, Asghar Khan decided to join the left-wing alliance, the Movement for Restoration of Democracy (MRD) led by Benazir Bhutto but he was detained by the government. 

He was kept under house arrest at his Abbotabad residence from 16 October 1979 to 2 October 1984 and was named a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International.

As he grew older, he handed over his small party to his equally capable son Omar Asghar Khan, who had for a while joined the military government of General Pervaiz Musharraf, and became minister of Ministry of Environment (MoE). 

After his son’s resignation from the cabinet, Omar Asghar Khan took over Tehrik-e-Istiqlal and subsequently merged it with assorted other Non-governmental organization and formed a new party called National Democratic Party, an event which caused another split in the party.

Both Independence Movement and National Democratic Party suffered major shock and setback when Omar Asghar Khan was murdered in Karachi on 25 June 2001 prior to the elections. 

An inquiry into his death was ordered by the Sindh High Court and in spite of repeated requests, it was never started.

In a historic press conference on 12 December 2011, Asghar Khan announced his full support to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Imran Khan. 

He praised Imran Khan for his struggle and endorsed him as the only hope left for the survival of Pakistan.

This endorsement came at a crucial time for Imran Khan, when many tainted politicians were joining his party. 

After announcing his party’s support for PTI, Asghar Khan resigned as President of Tehreek-e-Istiqlal and left the future of his party in the hands of his workers.

Contrary to many media reports, Asghar Khan never joined PTI.

Besides political activism, Asghar Khan has been engaged in peace activism.

On various occasion, Asghar Khan called for normalization of Indo-Pakistan relations.

Asghar Khan also renounced the nuclear tests operations conducted by Pakistan, targeting Prime minister Nawaz Sharif move for making that move. In 2011 Asghar Khan maintained that:

In the last over 60 years, India has never attacked Pakistan, as it cannot afford it. Indians know well, if Pakistan is destroyed, they will be the next target… It was made our problem that one day India would invade us. But we did so four times and the first attack was on Kashmir, where Maharaja was not prepared to accede to India for he wanted to join Pakistan and waited for this for 21 days. Indian forces came to East-Pakistan when people were being slaughtered there. Moreover, again at Kargil, Indian never mounted an assault.

Asghar Khan blamed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto for Balochistan conflict and the East-Pakistan war , terming it “inflexible attitude” of Bhutto.

 Commenting of his political collapse, Asghar Khan accused the civil society for his failure, and marked that: ” the majority in Pakistan voted for the (corrupt) politicians, as they also wanted their job done by “hook or by crook”.

Asghar Khan also criticized Late Mr Bhutto on numerous occasions, holding him responsible for tyranny during the 1970 elections.

During the Bangladesh Liberation War, Asghar Khan did support the East-Pakistan morally, alleging the West Pakistan under Bhutto, of depriving East Pakistan from their political and economical rights. He also demanded power to be handed over to the people of East Pakistan. In 1972, after Mr Bhutto was made president, Asghar Khan accused him for the break-up of the country.

AM (rtd) Asghar Khan had once filed a petition with the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 1996. Till 1999 it was occasionally heard just to push away the time. During the same year Justice Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui, the then Chief Justice of Pakistan concluded the hearing but could not find courage to announce the final decision.

 The case file was shelved in the cold room.

The said Asghar Khan Case [challenging unlawful distribution of Rs:140 million amongst ‘some chosen’ politicians by the Pakistan Army’s ISI in 1990’s parliamentary elections] caught momentum when the apex court was moved once again in December 2011 [may be just by coincidence] on the basis of an article ‘Similar Looks wanted please’, appeared on internet media through www.Pkhope.com on 8 October 2011.

It is an educated guess that the PPP’s high command had picked up that article; asked some of its veteran lawyers to make out a fresh reminder for the Supreme Court, not to malign the army or its ISI but to drag certain politicians into slippery mud of mockery and contempt who were the recipients of huge amounts of money from government exchequer through the then president GIK’s planning.

Later the same essay was made part of a book published in the UK which was picked up by the Supreme Court of Pakistan as a piece of evidence, attached it with case file and decided the case in February 2012 on the basis of its article titled Is Hamam Main Sab Nangay.

Asghar Khan has also authored 13 books, including We’ve Learnt Nothing from History, Pakistan at the Crossroads and Generals in Politics.

Asghar Khan was married to Amina Shamsie in 1946 and they had five children, Nasreen, Shereen, Saira, Omar (deceased) and Ali Asghar Khan.