New Pakistan Air Chief appointed

New Pakistan Air Chief appointed ISLAMABAD, Feb 20 (KUNA) -- President of Pakistan General Pervez Musharraf Thursday appointed Air Marshal Syed Qaiser Hussain acting chief of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), an official announcement said here.
PAF Air Chief Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir and 16 other high ranking officials were killed in a Fokker F-27 plane crash near Kohat airbase some 220 Kilometers from here.
Musharraf and the Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Kkan Jamali have expressed shock and grief over this tragic accident. In their condolence messages they described the death of the air chief and other officers as a great national loss. They paid rich tributes to the meritorious services of late air chief marshal Mushaf Ali Mir.
Defense minister Rao Sikander Iqbal has also condoled the tragic plane crash in which chief of the air staff air chief marshal Mushaf Ali Mir and 16 others lost their lives.
Air Chief Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir was born in March 1947. He joined Pakistan Air Force on August 18, 1965 and got commission in January 1967.He was appointed as chief of the air staff on November 20, 2000.Mushaf Ali Mir did M.
Sc. in war studies and participated in several training and professional courses. He was decorated with many medals of Nishan-e-Imtiaz, Hilal-e-Imtiaz, Sitara-e-Imtiaz and Sitara-e-Bisalat.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Air Force has constituted a high level inquiry commission to ascertain causes of the plane crash, a PAF spokesman said at a press briefing Thursday.
The inquiry commission will investigate all aspects of the plane crash, he said. (end) myk.tg KUNA 202018 Feb 03NNNN