IT was heartening to learn that PAF has renamed the PAF base Mianwali as PAF base M.M. Alam.

The government has also issued a commemorative stamp named after one of the greatest fighter pilots of all times, Air Commodore (r) M.M. Alam. The credit for these steps goes to PAF, especially the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Tahir Rafique Butt, for the former and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for the latter.

This should have been done long ago. The legendary Mr Alam was not an ordinary hero. He was arguably the best fighter pilot of the modern jet warfare era. This ‘Ace’ pilot (Ace is one who shoots down at least five enemy jets in an air war) did something in a single sortie in the 1965 Pakistan-India war, which has not been done by American fighter pilots in Europe, Korea, the Middle East or Vietnam or European fighter

pilots in Europe despite their long engagements.

Mr Alam’s feat of courage and valour took the heart out of the Indians in the 1965 war and their dream of gaining ‘air superiority’ over the skies of Pakistan was virtually crushed by this courageous flyer.

He still holds the record of shooting down the maximum number of enemy airplanes in the subcontinent. Most of the youngsters of my generation wanted to be like M.M. Alam as he used to be an icon.

I request the concerned in all the provinces and in the federal capital to name one of the busy roads (like the one in Lahore) after M.M. Alam.

The Defence Housing Authority, Karachi, should also take the lead by naming Sunset Boulevard or Shamshir Boulevard after the great man because he spent many of his post-retirement years in Karachi and was eventually buried in the same city.

M. Asif

Karachi