Ex-PAF chief Mushaf Mir died in defective aircraft, PAC told

ISLAMABAD: A stunning revelation was made before the Monitoring and Implementation Committee of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Monday that the crash of ex-chief of the air staff Air Chief Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir’s aircraft, in which he lost his life along with 10 other officials, occurred due to a defective aircraft that was purchased at the cost of Rs83 million. The concerned aircraft had completed its flying hours. However, officials of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) insisted that the incident occurred due to the mistake of the pilot and bad weather.
The PAC Monitoring and Implementation Committee meeting was held with Chairman Rana Muhammad Afzaal in the chair. In this meeting, audit paras relating to the Ministry of Defence for the years 1990 to 1997 were examined.
The audit officials told the committee that the aircraft which was purchased for then air chief marshal Mushaf Ali Mir was defective and it was handed over to the PAF in 1994 and an amount of Rs83 million was wasted on a defective aircraft which had completed its flying hours. The audit officials told the committee that this aircraft was earlier offered to the Pakistan Navy, then to PIA, but they did not show interest in it. It was the same aircraft in which Mushaf Ali Mir was killed along with 10 other officials of the PAF.
Chairman of the committee Rana Muhammad Afzaal questioned why a defective aircraft was purchased that caused the loss of senior PAF officials.
However, a senior PAF official told the committee that in the 1990s, four such deals were made in which scrap planes were lifted and were brought into flying condition. The experiment of the purchase of this aircraft was done in line with the previous deals. “From the year 1990 to 2000, such deals were made in which the PAF lifted scrap planes and brought them into flying condition. It was a deal of the army and then the aircraft was handed over to PAF and this plane had flown over 10 years,” the PAF officials told the committee.
The chairman asked as to who took the decision to purchase the aircraft.
The PAF officials replied that the aircraft was taken from the Maritime Security Agency and PAF itself took the decision to purchase it.
Auditor General of Pakistan Rana Asad Amin said that if it was a surplus aircraft, why it was purchased.
The officials of the Defence Ministry replied that this issue was discussed in the PAC sub-committee that referred it to the Joint Staff Committee.
Secretary Defence Production told the committee that the ministry needed three months to settle this issue and they would present the report after three months. A member of the PAC Mehmood Khan Achakzai said if there was anything wrong, they should make it right.