Kaleem Saadat

Initial military training

Kaleem Saadat was born in Faisalabad. 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 CSI from the École Militaire in France; and National Defence Course from the National Defence College, Islamabad.

Early life

Kaleem Saadat Rana was born in a Rajput family of Faisalabad

His foreign tours include: Exchange Pilot in Turkey (1977–78); Deputation to Algeria (1980–83); War Course at the École Militaire, Paris, France (1989–90). He was a course-mate and close friend of Rashid Minhas, the trainee pilot who crashed his aircraft and lost his life, to prevent his flight instructor from defecting to India in that aircraft, in 1971.

Command and Staff assignments

During his Air Force career, Saadat commanded No. 14 OCU Squadron, No. 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

On 20 February 2003, the then PAF Chief Air Chief Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir died in a plane crash when the Fokker he along with his wife and fifteen other high-ranking officers were flying in crashed near Kohat in northwestern Pakistan, killing all the passengers on board. 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 (ADC), as the new chief of Pakistan Air Force.

Achievements

The JF-17 Thunder program under Kaleem Saadat was throttled into full gear. It 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."

Retirement

In March 2006, 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.