TEXT AND PHOTO BY Mohammad Mahboob Alam
KARACHI: Air Force Day is observed in Pakistan on 7th September to mark the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) role in the 1965 Into-Pak War during which Air Commodore M. M. Alam shot down 9 Indian fighters.
Air Commodore M. M. ALAM, a legend in the history of aerial warfare, used to dwell near this scribe’s abode in Karachi.
He shot down 5 Hawker Hunter Mk 56 fighters of Indian Air Force in less than a minute (four in the first 30 seconds) and became ace in a day. Though Chief of Air Staff Air Marshall Noor Khan recommended Nishan-e-Haider for him, COAS Field Marshal Ayub Khan (who was President of Pakistan from 1958 to 1969) did not agree and awarded him SJ Bar.
Air Commodore M. M. ALAM was an exceptionally well-read person who had lived an atypically simple life. In a rare interview, he had articulated his candid point of view with conviction and instinctive boldness of a Fighter Pilot!
As the friendship developed it transpired that contrary to the general credence, this ace-fighter pilot lived like a mystic, (not a mullah or recluse) sleeping on the floor, surrounded by walls of thousands of books, and small pillars of 555 cigarette packets.
For very few M. M. ALAM was an eccentric spent-force but for most a revered upright national hero who had played his part well in the making of this nation. Belonging to that generation which dreamt of Pakistan.
M. M. ALAM reckoned defending motherland as the best way to serve it. Throughout his days as a warrior he kept cultivating his intellect by studying books quenching his quest for enlightenment (and fortunately the Air Force had inherited well-stocked British-established libraries).
ALAM, who believed that man evolves privately, graduated contemplating the chef d’oeuvres of authors like Hugo and Sartre then exalted to the transcendental plateau musing over religious philosophies. But it was only after leaving the Air Force that he started learning the Quran, which he trusted is the ultimate fountainhead of wisdom. “We don’t need Mao’s Red Book or any exotic ideology,” he said. “We just require to develop a Muslim mind”
M. M. ALAM, who advocated accountability and leadership by consensus, believed that Muslims would have adopted democracy if they had ruled for a longer while: “We are the most tolerant people in the world”, he maintained.
Speaking about sectarianism in Pakistan Alam wondered: “For decades we lived in harmony, how come this quandary emerged suddenly following the Islamic Revolution”, he pointed out insinuating that the roots of the peril lied elsewhere.
Rejecting the western culture & economic system he said: “Their values are different from ours. We have history and civilization but instead of attempting to find our identity, we are blindly following the western trend”.
Air Commodore had observed: “Our mass media is busy projecting actors, singers and dancers as role-models in place of giving prominence to our outstanding scholars and workers. In lieu of showing the problems of working women, we have turned them into a commodity – sex and nudity is not our culture. All this will ruin us in the long run”.
Maintaining that tragedy of Pakistan was the intellectual failure, he held: “Public opinion requires to be developed through education. But a particular kind of pro-western mindset is being cultivated by our upper class English-medium schools, while in other institutions incompetent teachers are busy rendering outdated lectures compelling students to resort to short cuts”.
Defending the enormous defense budget M. M. ALAM had observed: “There is a dearth of journalists specialized in defense. Those who write are only involved in day-to-day analysis and not in long-term studies”. He said that due to this ignorance opposition of defense budget had become a cliché: “Cost of national security and its impact on economy is not understood”.
He further held that military expenditure could not be curtailed but the percentage be diminished by augmenting the GNP. However, he conceded: “The elite officers are living luxurious lives; if these expenses are done away with in addition to the down-sizing of excess personnel, then a considerable abatement is conceivable”.
A firm believer in Pakistan, M. M. ALAM was convinced that this country had not only come to stay but could play a role as the leader of Muslim World: “This nation has a place under the sun – 140 million people is no joke”, he asserted.
“But wishy-washy talks of our politicians are not enough. Without major social, economic and political change the present discontent will transform into a movement”, he cautioned. “If the state of affairs remains the same the military balance will tilt in favor of India enabling it to control our policies”, he forewarned.
M. M. ALAM further said that India and Israel aspired to become regional powers: “In the long run, they are natural allies. While Pakistan’s aspiration is limited only to trade and commerce (with Afghanistan and Central Asian Republics etc.) it is not geo-strategic or colonial”. He said that for a sound defense we needed a strong economy “which is only possible with national integrity and political stability”.
KARACHI: On Saturday (7th day of September, 2024) Air Vice Marshal Amir Shahzad placed floral wreath at the grave of Pilot Officer Rashid Minhas (NH) as PAF contingent presented a salute. Rashid Minhas was born here on 17th day of February 1951 and gave the ultimate sacrifice on 20th day of August, 1971 thwarting an attempt to hijack a PAF Jet.
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