General Pervez Musharraf did not get PAF chief Air Chief Marshal Parvaiz Qureshi’s support during Kargil war

As we celebrate the Rajat Jayanti (Silver Jubilee) on completion of 25 years since Kargil Vijay, we need to look back at that limited war that posed unlimited problems to our jawans in 1999. The reason for calling Kargil a limited war is the stance adopted by then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee who refused to enlarge its scope beyond evicting Pakistani soldiers from their positions. This was a unique war in more ways than one and the most unique thing about it is that it was limited to the Kargil district of Jammu & Kashmir.

The intrusion and occupation of Indian posts by Pakistani soldiers was detected in May 1999 and initially some commanders wrongly termed it as a local problem! However, they realised to their horror that the Pakistani soldiers had occupied positions vacated by India on the Line of Control (LoC) stretching over 150 km. It was then that a massive mobilisation of Indian troops was carried out to take back the positions occupied by Pakistanis. The plan of the Pakistani soldiers was to cut off Leh altogether by bombarding the Srinagar-Kargil-Leh highway. By occupying places like Tololing and Tiger Hill, situated right above the highway, the Pakistanis could easily watch all traffic plying the road and easily target them. 

Initially, the then Indian Army chief, General V P Malik, called only for helicopter support in the war zone, which effectively limited the role of the Indian Air Force (IAF). However, the helicopters had to be pulled back from venturing on the frontline after one helicopter was shot down and we lost four men to a Stinger missile strike. The frontline fighter jets of the IAF then stepped in, with MiG-21 aircraft flying the most missions. Due to the important role they played in the Kargil war, a MiG-21 aircraft has now been put on display at the Kargil War Memorial at Drass.

Overall, the IAF flew around 5,000 strike missions, 350 reconnaissance missions and around 800 escort flights. The IAF also flew about 2,000 helicopter sorties towards casualty evacuations and air transport operations, according to officials of the Ministry of Defence. Intriguingly, however, the IAF faced no opposition from the Pakistan Air Force (PAF). As such, the Indian aircraft flew their missions virtually unchallenged except for the Stinger missiles with the Pakistani soldiers occupying Indian positions. 

The PAF’s conspicuous absence from participation in any hostilities during the Kargil war was noticed by one and all. Why did that happen? It turned out that the then PAF chief Air Chief Marshal Pervez Mehdi Qureshi refused to allow the use of his force in the conflict. He stood firm on his position of non-participation by the Air Force and told then Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to find a way to de-escalate. He said that the skirmish had escalated into a full-scale war because of the impulsiveness of Pakistan Army chief General Pervez Musharraf. 

Qureshi retired in November 2000 after completion of his tenure which had started in November 1997. One unintended fallout of Qureshi’s standing up to General Pervez Musharraf was what the latter did at the time of his retirement. Musharraf, who was in control of Pakistan as a military dictator by then, appointed a General who was sixth in order of seniority as the next PAF chief, superseding five senior Pakistan Air Force officers.

PAF chief Qureshi said General Musharraf had not confided his plans to the top brass, and many Army Generals had not been informed about the Kargil operation. In other words, General Musharraf had virtually presented a fait accompli to Mian Sharif, wriggling out of which was virtually impossible. On July 4, 1999, Sharif even went to Washington to request US President Bill Clinton to intervene by asking India to step back but those entreaties failed. After his unsuccessful US visit, Sharif had no choice but to announce the pull back of Pakistani soldiers.

During that war, the Pakistan Army and Pakistan Air Force (PAF) were headed respectively by Pervez Musharraf and Parvaiz Mehdi Qureshi. In character, they were temperamentally as different as chalk and cheese! Qureshi had a life-long friendship with General Musharraf but knowing the latter’s impulsiveness, he refused to back him in the war. The participation of the PAF in the hostilities at that time could have raised the stakes far higher for the Indian troops. If it had not been for Qureshi’s steadfast refusal to let PAF jump in, the Kargil war could have been far bloodier and might have spread to a wider theatre of operations.

The Bangladesh liberation war officially started on December 13 and ended on December 16, 1971. However, the Indian Air Force (IAF) shot down a Pakistani aircraft on November 22, 1971, and its occupant was none other than Pervez Mehdi Qureshi! He was then a young Flight Lieutenant piloting a F 86 shot down by missiles fired by a Folland Gnat, a diminutive fighter aircraft. Gnat pilots were considered the most feisty in another time, endowed with legendary skills and they took on much more sophisticated Pakistani aircraft.

Another interesting fact about Qureshi is that when he bailed out and parachuted down, he was captured by Indian soldiers. After taking him as a Prisoner of War (PoW), the soldiers began to beat him up. He was  rescued by (then) Captain H S Panag, who went on to become a Lieutenant General in the Indian Army. Qureshi, who was to be the PAF chief during 1999 Kargil war, was the first Pakistani PoW of the 1971 war.

In 1999, the Kargil war remained limited to one district because the Pakistani Navy did not participate in any hostile actions. Like Qureshi, the then Pakistan Navy chief Fasih Bokhari refused to support General Pervez Musharraf. In fact, Bokhari publicly disagreed with and revolted against Nawaz Sharif’s decision to extend General Musharraf’s tenure as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. At that time, Bokhari was senior to General Musharraf and he resigned later in protest.

Earlier, Admiral Fasih Bokhari had invited Pakistan Army chief General Jehangir Karamat to a naval base to give a lecture on the security scenario. During the lecture, General Karamat strongly pitched for the creation of a National Security Council in which he urged representation of the armed forces also. This was interpreted as an intrusion of the Army into civilian affairs by Nawaz Sharif who was then Prime Minister. After Sharif voiced public comments against General Karamat, the latter resigned. It was only then that General Pervez Musharraf was elevated to the rank of Army chief by Sharif.