Kaleem Saadat

Background

Kaleem Saadat was born in Faisalabad. Kaleem Saadat Rana was born in a Rajput family of Faisalabad.

Career

He was promoted as the air chief on 20 March 2003, when the previous air chief Mushaf Ali Mir died in a tragic air crash along with several other high-ranking Air Force officers on 19 February 2003. He is a graduate of PAF Public School Sargodha where he belonged to 14th entry (697 – Fury House). He was commissioned in the Pakistan Air Force on 13 March 1971 in the 51st GD(P) Course.

Saadat has qualified Basic Weapons Course, Turkey.

Flying Instructors" Course from Risalpur. Staff College and Air War Course from PAF Air War College.

L"ESGI and Computer Society of India from the École Militaire in France. And National Defence Course from the National Defence College, Islamabad.

His foreign tours include: Exchange Pilot in Turkey (1977-1978).

Deputation to Algeria (1980-1983). War Course at the École Militaire, Paris, France (1989-1990). During his Air Force career, Saadat commanded Number.

14 OCU Squadron, Number.

32 Wing at PAF Base Masroor, and PAF Base Peshawar. His staff and instructional appointments include assistant commandant of the College of Flying Training at PAF Academy, director of plans at AHQ, chief instructor at the National Defence College, Islamabad, and deputy chief of air staff (operations) at AHQ. Death of then Air Chief Mushaf Ali Mir Thereafter, the then vice chief Air Marshal Syed Qaiser Hussain was made the acting Air Chief of PAF. On 19 March 2003, Air Marshal Kaleem Saadat, then deputy chief of air staff (personnel), was chosen over Hussain and Air Marshal Sarfraz Arshad Toor, air officer commanding, Air Defence Command (Aide-de-Camp), as the new chief of Pakistan Air Force. The JF-17 Thunder program under Kaleem Saadat was throttled into full gear.

Retirement In March 2006, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Kaleem Saadat"s three-year term expired and he was replaced by the then vice chief of air staff Air Marshal Tanvir Mahmood Ahmed as the air chief

Achievements

• The JF-17 Thunder program under Kaleem Saadat was throttled into full gear. lieutenant was during this time, the aircraft prototype was unveiled and it flew some hours, with the semi-production being started in 2005. The Air Headquarters were shifted to its permanent location in Islamabad after having stayed in Karachi, Peshawar and Rawalpindi. The PAF achieved its best Flight Safety record of its history when in the Year 2004, it had the lowest major aircraft accident rate. The PAF had the largest ever flying operations Exercise Highmark 2005 after nearly ten years" gap as well as holding its first ever tri-service wargame titled Tempest-I. Saadat is a recipient of Tamgha-e-Imtiaz (Military), Sitara-e-Imtiaz (Military), Hilal-e-Imtiaz (Military) and Nishan-e-Imtiaz (Military). In addition, he was decorated with French Légion d"honneur (Legion of Honour) on 13 July 2005 for the "excellent cooperation existing between French defence industries related to aeronautics and the Pakistan Air Force, which happens to maintain the most important fleet of Mirages in the world, after France, and acknowledges the impulse given personally by the Chief of Air Staff.".

Connections

Friend:

Rashid Minhas