Mushaf Ali Mir

Air Chief Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir NI(M)
مصحف علی میر
Air Chief Marshal (General) Mushaf Ali Mir wearing his Mess dress, PAF.
16th Chief of Air Staff
In office November 20, 2000 – February 20, 2003
President	Pervez Musharraf
Prime Minister	Zafarullah Khan Jamali
Preceded by	Parvaiz Mehdi Qureshi
Succeeded by	Kaleem Saadat
Personal details
Born	(1947-03-05)5 March 1947 Lahore, Punjab, British India (now in Punjab, Pakistan)
Died	20 February 2003(2003-02-20) (aged 55) Kohat, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
Awards	Sitara-e-Basalat Sitara-e-Imtiaz (Military) Hilal-e-Imtiaz (Military) Nishan-e-Imtiaz (Military)
Military service
Nickname(s)	Mashoo
Allegiance	Pakistan
Service/branch	Pakistan Air Force
Years of service	1968–2003
Rank	Air Chief Marshal (General)
Unit	No. 20 Squadron Eagles
Commands	Chief of Air Staff Central Air Command Southern Air Command Pakistan Aeronautical Complex Northern Air Command Project ROSE
Battles/wars	Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 Soviet war in Afghanistan Pakistan-Afghanistan border war 2001 Indo-Pakistan standoff

Mushaf Ali Mir (5 March 1947 – 20 February 2003) was an influential and a four-star air officer, who was the sixteenth chief of air staff of Pakistan Air Force (PAF), serving from 20 November 2000 until his accidental death in a plane crash on 20 February 2003.

A combatant pilot and air operations strategist, Mir commanded the strategic aerial combat missions during the civil war in Afghanistan, and also commanded PAF forces during the 2001 Indo-Pakistan standoff. On 20 November 2000, he was promoted to four-star rank and appointed Chief of Air Staff by his close friend and comrade, General Pervez Musharraf. His appointment was cut short when a former PAF Fokker F-27 on which he was a passenger crashed near Kohat, Pakistan. He was succeeded by Air Chief Marshal Kaleem Saadat.

Mushaf Ali Mir was born in Lahore, and was one of nine children of a middle class Kashmiri family of Shia Muslim origin. His father, Farzand Ali Mir, was a calligrapher who died when Mushaf was young. He attended Government Wattan Islamia High School, Lahore.

Mir was commissioned in the PAF on 21 January 1968 in the 45th GD(P) Course. He was a graduate of Flying Instructors School (FIS) and Combat Commanders School (CCS). He took his staff college course at PAF Staff College (now PAF Air War College), and his NDC course at National Defence College, Islamabad.