Pakistan Air Force Public School Sargodha 1953; Pakistan Air Force College Sargodha 1967

Through Courtesy of the Sargodhian

For a considerable time before 1953, negotiations had been proceeding between the Government of Pakistan and Air Service Training Ltd., a British company which had experience in running air training centres. The school was to be started under a British Principal and British key staff on the model of English public schools. The interest taken by the Government of Pakistan in the project can be gauged from the fact that amongst others, the school’s Board of Governors included Secretary Defence and C-in-C RPAF as Chairman and Deputy Chairman respectively. The original staff consisted of Mr. Sprawson and eight British masters. Col Swetenham as Bursar, Dr. White as Medical Officer and Miss Watt as nursing sister. In February were appointed Mr. Taqvi and Mr. Qureshi and in December Mr. Kazi. The commemoration stone of the new institution was laid by Mian Aminuddin, the governor of Punjab in 1953. The first batch of 100 students was inducted into the school from West and East Pakistan. After a modest start in 1953, the school progressed with amazing speed and by 1955, the construction of the residential blocks was completed. The last month of 1957 saw a big change in the management of the school when Mr. Sprawson, the founder principal left for England on expiry of his contract. He was to be succeeded by Mr. Hugh Catchpole, a legendary personality, who had served for a long time as Principal of the Royal Indian Military College (RIMC) Dehra Dun, India. However he could not join the school immediately as he was working as principal of Cadet College Hasan Abdal. Therefore Mr. Stott, the school headmaster was asked to take over as principal for two months only. Mr. Hugh Catchpole took over as Principal on 20 February 1958. The period after that was the golden era in which the school was transformed into an institution. Besides the ever flourishing academic activities, the school started providing regular glider training to the students in 1960.

First Entry: 101 students joined February 1953

9. Syed Masood Zaidi; Attacker

17. Aftab Alam Khan; Fury

19. Ali Kazim; Fury

31. Omar Aziz Saiyid; Tempest

43. Syed Hassan Varis; Tempest

57. Ghulam Mohammad Malik ; Attacker

69. Farooq Feroze Khan; Fury

Air Chief Marshal Farooq Feroze Khan NI(M), Sbt

72. Anis Akram Baig; Attacker

82. M. Anis Ahmed Ataullah; Tempest

Anis Ataullah First Sargodhian to pass out from RMA Sandhurst. Best overseas Cadet (82 Tempest)

Second Entry: 55 students joined in February 1955

109. Moslehuddin Ahmed; Attacker

115. S.M. Anas; Attacker

118. Tariq Habib Khan; Tempest

Wing Commander Retd. Tariq Habib Khan SJ (118 Tempest)

Aaley Ahmed; Fury

Major Alley Ahmed Shaheed SJ (125 Fury)

Aftab Zia Malik; Fury

136. Arshad Sami Khan; Fury

Squadron Leader Retd. Arshad Sami Khan SJ (136 Fury)

147. Saiful Azam; Attacker

Group Captain Retd. Saif-ul Azam SJ & Bar (147 Attacker)

152. Samin Jan Baba; Sabre

Lt. Colonel Samin Jan Babar SJ & Bar (152 Sabre)

156. Javed Afzaal Ahmed; Tempest

Squadron Leader Retd. Javed Afzaal Ahmed SJ (156 Tempest)

Third Entry: 55 students joined in October 1955

161. Bakhtiar Beig Mirza; Attacker

163. Nasir Mahmood Wariach; Tempest

164. Khizar Hayat; Attacker

164. Javed Akbar Khan; Attacker

173. Anis Abbas; Attacker

177. Nisar Hussain Tiwana; Sabre

180. Mohammad Gulzar Bhatti; Sabre

183. Pervez Iqbal; Attacker

184. Abbas H. Mirza; Sabre

Fourth Entry: 57 students joined in March 1956

218. Iqbal Javed Younus; Fury

221. Mohiuddin Ahmed; Attacker

235. Khalid Abbas Reza; Tempest

257. Syed Shahid Reza; Tempest

Flight Lt. Shahid Raza TJ (257 Tempest)

260. Maqsood Amir; Tempest

261. M. Fayyazuddin; Attacker

269. M. Mati-ur Rehman; Tempest

Fifth Entry: 42 students joined in September 1956

273. M. Erfan-uddin; Attacker

274. Mamoon ur Rashid; Attacker

279. Zahid Mohsin Rashid; Attacker

281.Shafiq Haider; 281 Fury

286. Momin Arif; Tempest

288. Tariq Nazir Syed; Sabre

301. Shahid Zulfiqar; Attacker

303. Mohammad Zaheeruddin; Attacker

307. Hamid Rauf; Fury

308. Khawaja Shahid Hasan; Attacker

311. Tasneem Noorani; Attacker

Sixth Entry: 35 students joined in September 1957

318. Amjad Qurban Khalid; Fury

320. Shehryar Qutub; Attacker

323. Aliuddin; Attacker

324. Hasan Pervez; Fury

325. Junaid Maqsood; Sabre

327. Salamul Haq Ansari; Fury

335. Shafiq-ul Haq; Sabre

337. Nazimullah Choudhry; Attacker

340. Mushtaq Ahmed; Attacker

341. Mizan-ur Rehman; Attacker

345. Jashim-uddin; Tempest

346. Abdul Muqeet; Tempest

Seventh Entry: 43 students joined in September 1958

349. M. Idrees Hussain; Sabre

351. Akber Hussain; Attacker

353. Nazrul Islam; Attacker

354. Masood Anwar; Attacker

356. Syed Safi Mustafa; Tempest

Flight Lt. Safi Mustafa SJ (Shaheed)

C-in-C Asghar Khan awarding gliding wings to Safi Mustsafa (356 Tempest)

358. Shahid Aziz Siddiqui; Attacker

361. Kamran Yousaf Mirza; Attacker

362. Ozair A. Hansafi; Tempest

366. Saeed Anwer; Fury

370. Ilyas Beig Mirza; Fury

371. Abdul Rauf Khan; Tempest

372. Rabnawaz Khan; Sabre

375. Ahmed Saeed; Tempest

380. Azad Ayub; Fury

381. Abdul Qadeer Mansoor; Fury

382. M. A. Kassem Choudhry; Attacker

384. Saulat Javed; Sabre

385. Syed Feiz Mehdi; Attacker

389. Masud Hassan Khan; Attacker

Eight Entry: 32 students joined in January 1959

391. Ejaz Syed; Attacker

392. Ghulam Ahmsad Warsi; Attacker

393. Ayaz Hussain Tiwana; Sabre

395. Kamaluddin Akbar; Attacker

399. M. Ruhul Amin; Attacker

401. Mohammad Hanif Amin; Tempest

402. Syed Nasim Hussain; Sabre

406. Mir Saiful Islam; Sabre

409. Zahidul Karim Khan; Attacker

410. Mansoor Salim Ahmed; Sabre

411. Ershad Ahsan; Tempest

416. Sikander Hayat Shah; Fury

417. Nasir Ali Khan; Attacker

420. Shamimuddin Munir; Attacker

Ninth Entry: 59 students joined in September 1959

424 Azhar Ali Bukhari; Sabre, Flying Officer. (C130 crash)

425 Jamal Hussain; Tempest (Air Commodore Retd.)

426 Shahid Kamal Khan; Sabre (Air Commodore Retd.)

427 Kaleem uddin Rehman Sabre; East Pakistan

428 Nasir Hussain Khan; Sabre (Group Captain Retd.)

429 Mohammad Nazarul Islam; Attacker; East Pakistan

430 Saeed-uz Zaman Khan; Tempest (Flight Lieutenant Retd. POW)

431 Sohail Ahmed Tempest

432 Syed Niaz Nabi; Attacker (Group Captain Retd.)

433 Syed Mohammad Razi Imam; Tempest

434 Syed Mohammad Husain; Attacker (Captain PIA Retd.)

435 Basit Hamid; Tempest

436 AKM Hayatullah Farooqi; Attacker; East Pakistan

437 Muhammad Rafiq; Fury

438 Nazarul Islam; Tempest; East Pakistan

439 Muhammad Tehseen; Attacker (ex-Business Aviation Pilot)

440 Daud Humayun Baig; Sabre

441 Ahmed Badaruz Zaman; Attacker; East Pakistan

442 Farid Ali Shah; Tempest

Air Commodore Retd. Fareed Ali Shah (442 Tempest)

443 Abdul Khaliq; Fury

444 Jamil Ashraf; Sabre (PIA Flight Service)

445 Haroon Rashid Mirza; Sabre

446 Nazar Hayat;Tempest

447 Ahsan Saleem Hyat; Sabre

General Retd. Ahsan Saleem Hyat HI(M). VCOAS

448 Akbar Ghani; Sabre

449 Nazar Hayat Khan; Attacker (Group Captain Retd.)

450 Kamaluddin Mahmood Attacker; East Pakistan

451 Sikander Hayat Khan Attacker

452 Amir Ahmed Khan; Attacker; East Pakistan

453 Sajjad Anwar Kha; Attacker

454 Shafqat Haroon; Tempest

Captain Shafqat Haroon SJ Shaheed (454 Tempest)

455 Hamiduz Zafar Ahmed; Fury

456 Tariq Maqbool Elahi; Tempest

457 Syed Imtiaz Hyder; Tempest

Air Vice Marshal Retd. Imtiaz Hyder ( 457 Tempest)

458 Khalid Mahmood Khalid ‘KMK’ ; Sabre (Group Captain Retd.)

459 Nasir Ahmed Siddiqui;Tempest

460 Sikander Malik Awan; Fury

461 M. Bilal Khan Fury

Air Commodore Retd. Muhammad Bilal Khan (461 Fury)

462 Masood Ahmed Sharif; Attacker

463 AKM Ziauddin Ahmed Fury; East Pakistan

464 Pervez Ajmal; Fury

465 Tariq Bari Sheikh; Tempest

466 Mohammad Tahir Aslam; Fury

467 Imtiaz- ul Haq Khan; Attacker (Pilot Officer Killed in motorcycle

crash Masroor Base)

468 Marghoob Hasan; Fury

469 Mehboob Elahi Choudhry; Sabre; East Pakistan

470 Riaz Khan Fury

Riaz Khan SJ, Captain Retd., Pakistan Navy (470 Fury)

471 Mazhar Ghareeb Nawaz Fury (Aircraft Engineer PIA)

472 Iftikhar Khan Fury

473 Farooq Saeed Anwer Fury

474 Mateen; Attacker

475 Jawaid Masud; Tempest

476 Syed Farooq Ahmed Ali; Attacker (removed from school for mischief)

477 Waheed Qazi; Fury

478 K.B. Mehboob- ul Alam; Sabre (East Pakistan)

479 Saif- ur Rehman Tariq; Sabre East Pakistan

480 Zakaullah Ranjha; Fury (Pakistan Air Force)

481 Saleem A. Farooqi; Sabre

482 Ishtiaq Bashir; Attacker (Brigadier)

Tenth Entry: 31 students joined in October 1960

484. Sultan Muhammad Khan; Attacker

493. Rafi-uddin; Attacker

495. Syed Kaiser Ahmed; Attacker

498. M. Shams-ul Haq; Attacker

499. Hasnat Ahmed; Attacker

504. Asad Jehangir; Sabre

506. Rafiq Ahmed; Sabre

507. Syed Asif Hasnain; Attacker

512. Shahid Javed; Attacker

513. Syed Masood Alam; Fury

Eleventh Entry: 50 students joined in January 1961

514. Hassan Reza Kizilbash; Attacker

516. Syed Rafatullah Shah; Attacker

518. Khalid Zareef Khan; Fury

519. Syed Tahir Mehdi; Attacker

521. Luftul Anis Ahmed; Attacker

523. Mian Shahid Waseem; Tempest

527. Mahmood Gul; Tempest

529. Pervez Jung Bahadur; Fury

538. Ramizul Karim Khan; Attacker

542. Ayaz Ahmed Sipra; Attacker

548. Syed Hadi Rizvi; Attacker

Syed Hadi Rizvi (548 Attacker)

549. Musharraf Hussain; Attacker

551. Ehsanullah; Fury

556. Saeed Afzal Khan; Fury

Flight Lt. Saeed Afzal SJ (556 Fury)

Twelfth Entry: 38 students joined in September 1961

568. Javed Iqbal; Sabre

Flight Lt. Javed Iqbal TJ (586 Sabre)

571. Riffat Saeed Khan; Attacker

574. Riaz Sarwar; Attacker

575. Syed Mohammad Asif; Attacker

576. Sakhawat Hussain; Attacker

577. Feroze Hussain; Fury

581. Pervez Akhtar Nawaz; Fury

589. Ehsan-ul-Haque; Fury

General Retd. Ehsan-ul Haque HI(M) (589 Fury)

596. M. Mahboob-ul Islam; Attacker

597. Syed Rahat Zafar; Attacker

Thirteenth Entry : 67 students joined in September 1962

624. Naseem Anwer Deen; Fury

623. Luqman Aziz Qazi; Attacker

615. Khalid Ahmed Kidwai; Sabre

General Retd. Khalid Ahmed Kidwai

Fourteenth Entry: 53 students joined in September 1963

664. Nisar Ali Baig; Sabre

Flying Officer Nisar Ali Baig TJ (664 Sabre)

672. Laeeq Ahmed; Attacker

675. Naeem Ghafoor Sheikh; Sabre

695. Muhammad Shujaat Azim; Fury

697. Kaleem Saadat; Fury

Ninth Entry induction in 1959 by Syed Imtiaz Haider 457 Tempest

The school number spread was from 424 to 482. Four boys did not join. The remaining

55 boys were divided in four houses; 16 in Attacker, 15 in Fury, 14 in Sabre, and 11 in Tempest. As in all pre-1971 intakes, the entries were an excellent mix of boys from all parts of Pakistan. In the 9th, 21 boys had been selected from East Pakistan, the rest from other provinces in the West. The entry was placed in Class VII except for a few who were placed in Class VIII.

An exceptionally large number of the 9th Entry boys joined the Air Force and the other two Service academies. 29 joined the PAF College Risalpur, 4 got into the Army, and 1, Riaz Khan got commissioned in the PN. The PAF Entries joined the 42nd, 43rd, 44th, 45th and 47th GD(P). Shahid Kamal (426 Sabre) and Niaz Nabi (432 Attacker) were selected and trained in Cranwell, UK.

Azhar Ali Bukhari (424 Sabre) was the proud winner of the Sword of Honour for best all-round performance at the Passing out of the 43rd GD (P) on 22 January 1967. Unfortunately he crashed in his early days. May God Bless his soul. Jamal Hussain continued to top in academics in the Air Force too.

Six boys rose to high ranks in the PAF; two rose to one-star and above. Ahsan Saleem Hyat (447 Sabre) is a General and VCOAS, Pakistan Army. Riaz Khan rose to be a captain in the Pakistan Navy. He received Sitara-i-Jurat in the 1971 war. Shafqat Haroon (454 Tempest) joined the Pakistan Army and won a posthumously awarded SJ in the 1971 war in East Pakistan. The boys of the 9th have also received two

Hilal-i-Imtiaz (Military), numerous Sitara-i-Imtiaz, Sitara-i-Basalat

and Tamgha-i-Basalat.

Akbar Ghani (448 Sabre) and Mazhar (471 Fury) have done very well and established themselves in the field of medicine in Australia and USA respectively. Badaruzzaman (441 Attacker), the studious one, did his Ph.D in nuclear physics and is heading a research division of Chevron in USA. Zafar (455 Fury) has made a mark in the aviation travel industry and sits as SVP of Amadeus in Karachi. Nasir (428 Sabre), Nazar (449 Attacker), Niaz (432 Attacker), Jamil Ashraf (444 Sabre) and Zakaullah (480 Fury)

are flying for PIA.

Seven of the boys from the 9th are no more with us:

1. Azhar Ali Bukhari (424 Sabre): C130 crash

2. Imtiaz-ul Haq Khan (467 Attacker): unfortunate road accident at Masroor

3. Shafqat Haroon (454 Tempest): martyred in 1971 War in East Pakistan

4. Ziauddin (463 Fury): Base Commander Dhaka, Bangladesh, died of natural causes

5. Marghoob (468 Fury): lost in MiG21 accident

6. Ishtiaq Bashir (482 Attacker) 2004: heart failure

7. Masood Sharif (462 Attacker) 2007: Open heart surgery

A unique honour held by the 9th entry is engraved in the history of the school itself. When the revival of the Sargodha Public School was approved in 1991, Air Commodore Fareed ali Shah (442 Tempest) was selected to be its first Commandant. It was his vision and perseverance that brought back the past distinction and the revered high standards of the School in accordance with its motto ‘Aim High’. He was followed by Air Commodore Muhammad Bilal Khan (461 Fury) and then Air Commodore Imtiaz Hyder (457 Tempest).