Meet the flying furies of the Pakistan Air Force

“We lock onto each other’s planes in the air and fake a battle, until one of us proclaims ‘I’m dead,’” says the 24-year-old Flying Officer, Ayesha Omar Farooq. 

She is one of the many female pilots who now bolster the ranks of the Pakistan Air Force. When she takes off from the tarmac, the responsibility of flying a multi-million dollar fighter is hers and hers alone. Gone are the days when women in the military were only restricted to the fields of medicine and engineering. With the passage of time, women in the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) have branched into different units and today, they are even inducted as frontline Fighter Pilots. Dressed in crisp uniforms with embellished stars on their shoulders and smiles on their faces, a group of female officers gather at the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) to talk about their experiences. They are the conquerors of the skies, and the pride they take in their positions and achievements is visible in their demeanour. Their faces, radiant with courage and confidence break into smiles and laughter effortlessly. It is easy to forget that, in order to get to this much sought-after position, each and every one of them has had to put in countless hours of hard work and have had to make many sacrifices.

For these pilots, the sky is not the limit. When it comes to flying fighter jets, the higher you soar, the greater are the heights that you discover. It is only when you push both yourself and your aircraft to its limits that you discover what you are capable of. 23-year-old Flying Officer Anam Faiq, was the first in her family to join the military. As a little girl, she would attend the annual parades with her father on the 23^rd of March in Islamabad. “I was so fascinated to see those planes soaring high. I always thought to myself that one day I will also fly a plane.” Back then, her image of pilots was that of tall, dashing and muscular men. “But of course that’s not the case anymore,” she says with a laugh. Anam has now spent six years in the air force and is now in charge of her own F-7 fighter plane.

Green car: The juice on hybrids in Pakistan

If you lived near the Lahore airport and had to drive to Mall road regularly, you’d be open to buying a car whose fuel cost you less. Amir Riaz has that 50km commute, and he’s quite frank about his decision to keep a hybrid car. “I have a [regular car] too,” he told The Express Tribune. “But I prefer taking my [hybrid]. It is just sensible. It consumes one-fourth of the fuel.”

The hybrid guzzles less gas because it uses a combination of petrol and electric power (in the form of a battery). Pakwheels CEO Raza Saeed says over 90% of the hybrids sold on their website are the Toyota Prius manufactured in Japan. Other choices include the Insight and Reborn by Honda or the Civic hybrid. Some high-end names recently introduced to Pakistan are the Porsche hybrid and the BMW 7-series.


While prices may vary depending on the model of the used car, something like the Toyota Prius will set you back 1.4m rupees. If you’ve got the cash to spare you could consider what Porsche, Mercedes and BMW have to offer at a hefty price tag of Rs13.5m. Porsche Pakistan CEO Abuzar Bukhari brought in the first luxury hybrid, the Cayenne, which gives 13.75 kilometres a litre. Interestingly enough, this is an SUV giving you better road mileage than a much smaller non-hybrid 1300cc or 1000cc car. “Pakistanis should not be limited to […] for hybrids,” he argues while naming two companies. “We Pakistanis deserve better, why buy used cars from other countries?”

Imports are the most obvious option, though, especially since no one is making them locally. These hybrids, many from Japan and the UK, are being brought over the Afghan border in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. However, the majority of them are arriving at Port Qasim in Karachi. About two out of 10,000 used cars reaching Karachi shores each month are hybrids.